Cutting Loose
by Chengar Qordath
Summary: Naruto and TenTen become friends while he's still at the Academy; TenTen helps Naruto graduate, and the two of them join Team Gai along with Rock Lee. Now, Naruto must learn what it means to be a jinchuriki, and how far he'll go to defend his ninja way.
1. A Prank Gone Horribly Right

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto.

* * *

"Stupid clone jutsu." Naruto grumbled. "It's a stupid jutsu anyway, why's anybody gotta use it? Okay, I guess being able to make copies of myself is kinda cool, but if not being able to do the clone jutsu means I fail the graduation exam again then who needs it?" Naruto's failed graduation exam had been several almost a year ago, but luckily the ninja academy believed in second chances so his plans to become the next Hokage hadn't been badly derailed. However, it still irked the boy that he hadn't graduated because of a single failed jutsu; it just wasn't fair, and if he didn't get it down before the next exam he would be failed again. If he could just figure out how he was supposed to do the damned clone jutsu he could finally get out of the academy and move on to the next step of his master plan to become Hokage.

Or rather, he could do that if he actually had a master plan. The boy had some half-formed ideas about kicking ass with his awesome ninja skills (ignoring for the moment that he had yet to develop any awesome ninja skills) and prompting the Hokage to give up his position gracefully, but that wasn't really the important part of the plan anyway. Becoming Hokage was just a stepping stone on Naruto's path to his real goal.

Respect.

Naruto didn't understand why almost everyone in the village looked down upon him, but he definitely understood that they did. At first he'd been hurt by the way everyone ignored and disdained him, but he'd still been a young boy when he learned that crying wouldn't change anything. If the people of Konoha didn't want to acknowledge him of their own accord then he would make them acknowledge him. Nobody ignored the Hokage. Nobody disrespected the Hokage.

Unfortunately for Naruto, while he was determined to become the youngest Hokage in Konoha's history, he had been forced to admit that it would probably be a while before he was in position to claim the office. Since he wasn't going to be named Hokage in the immediate future, he needed a way to get some respect and acknowledgement right now. Working hard in class hadn't gotten him any results; the senseis never praised him when he did well, so after a while Naruto had just stopped trying. Then, one day during a lesson on setting up basic traps, Naruto had a moment of inspiration.

Several of traps the senseis were describing could be modified easily enough to produce harmless, yet humiliating, results. In other words, the same principles applied to making lethal traps could be adapted to create highly effective harmless pranks. A sensei might be able to ignore Naruto's progress with his transformation jutsu, but nobody could ignore an eraser falling on their head or superglue on their chair. Not only that, people would also start respecting Naruto when it became clear that disrespect would bring down the prankster's wrath.

Thus, Naruto had decided to send a message to some of the more annoying students in his new class. Several of the less skilled ninjas-in-training had made a habit of mocking Naruto over the fact that he had even worse grades than they did, and it was past time they learned that Naruto was not a dead last loser.

The plan itself was devilish in its simplicity and sublime in its genius. Naruto's targets almost always showed up late to class, so it had been simple to wait until class started, then leave the door ajar with a bucket of water perched precariously on the edge, set to tumble down on the next person to open the door. However, the true genius of Naruto's plan was not the bucket. The problem Naruto had discovered with water-based pranks was that most people, upon being drenched, had promptly fled the scene and gone elsewhere to dry off, thus denying Naruto the chance to properly laugh at them for falling for his pranks. A coating of water-activated fast-acting adhesive on the floor under the door would fix that problem, once the water fell down Naruto's victim would be rooted in place so that Naruto could take his time laughing at them.

Luckily, the class's sensei didn't interfere with Naruto's preparations; Mizuki's sole response to all of Naruto's preparations had been to comment that ninjas who couldn't avoid pranks deserved to be humiliated in front of the entire class. The rest of the class wasn't inclined to interfere after the sensei had refused to get involved, and many of them were secretly looking forward to the results of the prank almost as much as Naruto was. Everyone enjoys a chance to laugh at someone else's misfortunes.

The entire class fell silent when they heard the first footsteps in the hallway, waiting with bated breath for the results of Naruto's prank. Perhaps Naruto's career as a prankster would carry bigger dividends than he had originally expected; amusing his classmates might gain him a new measure of acceptance amongst them. Naruto leaned forward in his seat, watching the door intently as he heard the footsteps continue to approach the door, and then there was a soft, tentative knock.

_Wait … that's not right! Those jerks never knock when they show up late!_ Naruto's concerns were affirmed when he heard a familiar female voice call out. "Mizuki-sensei? Iruka-sensei said that you wanted to see me right away." _Crap! Not her! Anybody but her! _Before Naruto could think to call out a warning Mizuki shot a smirk to the rest of the class, then said carelessly. "Come in then."

Naruto finally had the presence of mind to try and warn the girl away, but before the words left his mouth the door opened and his bucket of water went cascading down onto one of the last people Naruto had ever wanted to prank. The boy gave an involuntary flinch as he saw the soaked form of the rather cute pink-haired girl from the year below his. Sakura Haruno stood in the doorway, shocked by the sudden deluge, and when she attempted to flee and salvage her dignity she found her shoes firmly attached to the floor, causing the girl to overbalance and fall to the ground.

The class burst into laughter at the girl's misfortunes, even Mizuki joined in, while Naruto wilted miserably in his seat. He hadn't ever properly met the girl, but he had already begun to develop the beginnings of a crush on her and he'd been hoping to find a good reason to introduce himself. Whatever first impression he'd been hoping for, pranking her and making her the laughingstock of an entire classroom was not the way to do it.

Once the laughter died down Mizuki went to the unfortunate Haruno girl and helped her free her shoes from the floor. As the girl was about to flee the scene with the few tattered shreds of her remaining dignity, Mizuki grasped her arm and said. "Just a minute, Sakura." The sensei gave a cold smile. "You haven't told us what you learned from this lesson."

"W-what?" The girl asked, trembling with a mixture of coldness from her unexpected bath and humiliation from everything that had followed. "What lesson?"

"This was a lesson." Mizuki explained calmly. "I need to be sure you understand what you were supposed to have learned. Think of it as a pop quiz."

The girl remained silent for a long moment, then hesitantly offered one of the many basic rules all shinobi had been expected to learn. "A ninja is always prepared for the enemy's attack, even when they believe themselves to be safe."

"Very good." Mizuki said, condescension heavy in his voice. "Maybe next time you won't fall for such a simple trap that any idiot should have been able to see it." Turning his gaze to Naruto, Mizuki asked. "And what have you learned from how your prank went, Naruto?"

Naruto flinched as Sakura turned a hate-filled glare in his direction. _Crap, I was hoping she wouldn't find out it was my fault she got soaked. _Naruto shrunk down in his seat, wishing he could just disappear entirely. When it became clear that Mizuki would not move on until the boy said something, Naruto hesitantly offered. "That … um … well … the prank wasn't supposed to get Sakura, it was meant for someone else."

Mizuke gave a grin lacking any trace of genuine worth. "And the dead last gets one right; the rest of you had better be careful or he might catch up with you." Mizuki's gaze swept over the rest of the class before returning to Naruto. "This little exercise has given us a practical demonstration of an important thing for every ninja to keep in mind; traps do not distinguish between friend and foe, between your intended targets and innocent bystanders. That's why I had Sakura come here to give us a … practical demonstration of this principle." Mizuki turned back to Sakura and said. "You can go now; take a minute to dry off before going back to Iruka's class." Without a moment's hesitation the girl fled, and Naruto was horrified to note the girl seemed to have been on the verge of tears. _I gotta apologize to her later_. Naruto wasn't able to focus on the rest of Mizuki's lesson, or any of his other classes that day.

* * *

Naruto grimaced as another shuriken flew wide of the target, and threw the next one twice as hard, only to become even more frustrated when that one also missed the mark. His plans to apologize to Sakura had been badly derailed when a blond girl named Ino who was apparently one of Sakura's friends tracked him down and very publicly chewed him out for his prank. He'd tried to explain that it had been a terrible accident, but he hadn't been able to get a word in edgewise until the girl's rant had been winding down and he didn't think she'd believed him when he finally got a chance to defend himself. After that, the idea of tracking Sakura down for a further apology seemed pointless; she wouldn't believe him either, and he'd probably end up making her hate him even more and run into Ino and get yelled at even more.

The boy had decided to take out his frustrations by training, and had found an unoccupied training ground that seemed like a good place to practice his ninja skills. After half an hour of failing to produce a remotely passable clone Naruto had given up on that ongoing exercise in futility, and had shifted to practicing with his shuriken instead. When he'd gone up to the targets he had been surprised to see that one of the girls from his class was already practicing there; he couldn't recall her name off the top his head, but the double-bun hairstyle was definitely familiar. Naruto normally would have gone to another practice ground to work by himself, but in his current mood he couldn't be bothered to go to all the trouble of finding another unoccupied training area, and there were more than enough targets for both of them to practice at the same time without getting in each other's way; training fields were meant for use by four person teams after all..

Naruto growled in frustration as he switched from shuriken to kunai, and found that his results were no better. He normally did reasonably well with thrown weapons, but he seemed to be unable to hit a single target today, and the fact that the girl was hitting every target almost perfectly only increased his frustration. The girl turned to regard her accidental training companion and quickly looked over his lackluster results, then shot him a quick satisfied smirk.

With a muttered curse Naruto redoubled his efforts, throwing his next several weapons as hard as he could, and slamming a fist into the ground in helpless rage when they went even further of the mark than his previous attempts. "I'm throwing these things as hard as I can." The boy groaned. "Why can't I hit a single freaking target?"

The girl scoffed, then casually commented. "That's the entire problem, stupid." Seeing the boy's blank look of incomprehension, she explained. "You're throwing too hard and it's messing up your control."

"Huh?" Naruto asked. "What're you talking about?"

The girl rolled her eyes, then elaborated. "You're throwing so hard that it's making your motions rough and jerky." The girl demonstrated, giving a fair imitation of how Naruto had been throwing his weapons and getting a similar result to what Naruto had been accomplishing.. "You have to throw smoothly, like this." The girl once more demonstrated, throwing a kunai in a single graceful motion that placed her weapon dead center on the target.

"What makes you think you know more about how to throw a kunai than I do?" Naruto asked folding his arms across his chest and fixing the girl with an offended glare.

The girl glanced at her own targets, peppered with perfectly thrown weapons, then looked to Naruto's training area, littered with weapons that hit everywhere but where they were supposed to, then raised a single eyebrow. Naruto rubbed the back of his head and gave a sheepish grin as he grasped the girl's point, then admitted. "Okay, so maybe you know a little bit more than me about this."

The girl smirked and said, sounding quite pleased with herself. "I do have the best marks on throwing weapons out of anyone in our class for a reason."

That comment made something click in Naruto's brain, and he suddenly remembered the girl's name. _Tenten_. The boy hesitated a moment, then asked. "Um … could you show me how I'm supposed to be throwing again? I wasn't really paying attention the first time."

The girl rolled her eyes in annoyance, but then gave the boy another demonstration. "You try it now." She said.

Naruto's attempt to imitate Tenten's throw was far from perfect, but this time he actually hit the wooden target instead of going wild. "Hey, that works way better than the way I was throwing them before!" Naruto exclaimed. "Thanks Tenten!"

The girl regarded Naruto for a moment, then gave a careless shrug. "No problem." Tenten paused for a moment, then added. "I heard Iruka-sensei's going to be testing us on throwing weapons tomorrow, so you might want to practice until you've got that down. That's why I'm practicing; have to make sure I stay the best in the class."

Naruto took the girl's advice and practiced his throwing for a little longer, and continued to be pleased with his improved results. Tenten noted Naruto's much improved results and gave a satisfied nod, happy to see that a simple tip from her had turned the worst student in the class into a decent ninja where throwing weapons are concerned. It was a testament to Tenten's skill as a kunoichi that she could help a student most of the senseis had already given up on as a hopeless case. _Now there's an interesting thought. If I could turn Naruto from the dead last to even a passable ninja that would be quite the accomplishment. I'm good, but know I won't get the top rank in our class; however if I could train Naruto … that would be something no amount of grades could compare to._

"Um .. Hey, Tenten?" Naruto asked, snapping the girl out of her musing.. "Say … you any good with the clone jutsu? I … kinda suck at it; it's why I failed the graduation exam last year."

"Ninjutsu and genjutsu aren't my best areas, but I've got the basics down." The girl answered "Give the clone jutsu a try and I'll see if I can tell where you're having problems." _Let's hope whatever he's doing wrong is something I can figure out and fix; if I'm tutoring him then my reputation will be affected by his performance, so if he doesn't get better I'll look bad too._

Naruto closed his eyes and gathered his chakra, concentrating and building up as much as he could before finally performing the jutsu. When the puff of white smoke cleared and Naruto saw one of his usual half-dead looking clones instead of the healthy-looking duplicate he should have produced the boy groaned in frustration, then gestured to the pathetic clone and said. "That's what happens every time I try to make a clone. It's really starting to piss me off."

Tenten frowned at the sorry looking clone walking around it a few times while she tried to come up with some idea of what was going wrong. "Have you tried asking any of the senseis for help?" The girl inquired_. I'm nor quite sure what he's doing wrong here, but if one of the senseis told him what he needs to improve to get the jutsu right I can help with that._

The boy grimaced and seemed to acquire a sudden interest in studying his clone. "Tried once or twice, but they never have time to give me a couple tips when I ask."

Tenten frowned when she heard the boy's response. _That's odd; Naruto obviously needs the help, so why didn't anyone give it to him when he asked?_ Tenten dismissed the matter from her mind for the moment, and told Naruto. "Try it again."

Naruto dismissed his clone, then once more frantically gathered as much chakra as he could before releasing it into the jutsu, trying as hard as he could to pull it off. This clone looked even worse than the previous one. "Dammit, I'm never gonna get this stupid jutsu right!" Naruto groaned in despair.

Tenten considered Naruto's results suddenly recalling a piece of advice her father had given her once when she was having trouble with the replacement jutsu. "Naruto, you're trying really hard to do this jutsu, right?"

"Of course!" Naruto exclaimed. "I've been trying as hard as I can for a year to get this stupid jutsu right and I can never pull it off!" Turning a hopeful gaze on his new tutor, the boy asked. "So, have you figured out what I'm doing wrong?"

Tenten approached the clone and casually flicked a finger against it's arm, blinking in surprise when her finger encountered a gelatinous sort of resistance while passing through the clone. _This clone actually has substance? Looks like I was right… _"Yeah, I think I know what you need to do to get things right." Tenten declared.

"What is it?" Naruto asked eagerly, almost bouncing on his feet as he faced the prospect of finally defeating the dreaded clone jutsu.

"You need to calm down." Tenten told him.

Naruto went still, then folded his arms across his chest and adopted a very serious expression. "Right, I got a little excited there. I'm ready now, tell me what to do."

Tenten sighed in exasperation, then clarified. "No, that's what you need to do to get the jutsu right. You know you have trouble with making clones, so whenever you try to do the clone jutsu you get worked up and panicked, and that's why you make a total mess of it. Don't build up lots of chakra, don't get really determined or worried, treat it like any other jutsu and just do it instead of making such a big deal out it every time you try it."

"Alright, I'll give it a shot." Naruto said, not entirely convinced that the girl knew what she was talking about but willing to give it a try. _Okay … calm down. I'm calm. The clone jutsu's just another jutsu, it's no different than replacements or the transformation jutsu, and I've done those plenty of times with no trouble at all. I can do this…_ Naruto's hands flashed through the hand signs as he performed the clone jutsu, and a puff of white smoke engulfed the boy, then cleared to reveal a pair of perfect illusionary clones.

"YES!" Naruto shouted with glee. "I did it! Take that, stupid clone jutsu!" Turning to his tutor, Naruto gushed. "Thanks! You're so awesome Tenten-sensei!"

"Just Tenten." The girl said, smiling at the boy's obvious glee, "and you're welcome." _Maybe Naruto's not so bad after all…_

* * *

After a month of helping out Naruto, Tenten continued to be amazed by how quickly the boy had grown in ability. When it came to pure academic work the boy was as hopeless as ever, and after a week of trying to improve the boy's study skills Tenten had been forced to concede that even she would never be able to turn the boy into a scholar. However, when it came to practical ninja skills the boy had massively improved, and Naruto had been delighted when the new class rankings revealed that he had surrendered the dubious honor of being the class's dead last to Rock Lee, though Naruto's poor academics (and the fact that several senseis graded him a bit more harshly than other students) still kept him in the bottom ranks of the class.

Often, the problems Naruto encountered were relatively simple things that, once identified and addressed, were easily corrected. A few tweaks to his stance had massively improved the boy's taijutsu, and his ninjutsu had a lot fewer problems once she realized that Naruto put his right pinky just a bit out of position when making a horse seal. A little bit of one-on-one attention had been exactly what the boy needed to hammer out the problems with his basics, and once he had a solid foundation to work off of Naruto had improved rapidly. Tenten herself had learned a few things from reviewing the material to help Naruto; she'd been surprised when Naruto had pointed out that she kept putting too much weight on her rear leg when attacking in close combat, and on a few occasions Naruto had offered a unique perspective that helped her with difficult jutsus or gave her interesting ideas on how to use her own ninja skills.

As Tenten had gotten to know Naruto, she'd realized that it was far too simplistic to just dismiss the boy as an idiot. While she was often forced to explain things to him in laboriously painful detail, sometimes the boy would stun her by not only immediately grasping her point, but carrying it to conclusions she had never even considered. The fact that he seemed to have become slightly less of a hyperactive knucklehead helped as well, though Tenten often despaired at just how slight the change had really been.

With the graduation exams rapidly approaching, Iruka had decided to put his students through a bit of light sparring for their final lesson. Iruka took care to keep the matches reasonably even, though in some that was an exercise in futility; nobody in the class had the skill to take on Neji Hyuuga in close combat. Iruka had ended up having Neji fight against the number two and number three students at the same time; that was enough to give the Hyuuga genius a challenge, but Neji still won in the end.

"Well done Neji." Iruka congratulated the boy; who gave his instructor a brief nod in acknowledgement of the praise. "Masaru Mori, Naruto Uzumaki, you two are next."

"What?" Masaru, one of the largest boys in the class, called out. "Iruka-sensei, I'm the fifth-ranked student! Why are you putting me up against the guy who's just a couple places away from being dead last? Tenten's number four, she'd be a better match." The boy sighed and ran a hand through his short brown hair. "We ought to keep the fights fair."

"Iruka-sensei picked me 'Cause he knows I'm good enough kick your ass!" Naruto supplied, moving to his end of the training ground that was hosting Iruka's set of sparring matches..

Masaru didn't deign to dignify Naruto's outburst with a response, instead keeping his focus on their sensei. "I deserve a better opponent so I'll have a chance to show my skill, and Naruto shouldn't be forced to fight someone who's so far above his level. He's gotten better lately; give him a fair match so he has a chance to demonstrate that instead of forcing him to fight an opponent he has no chance of beating."

"Don't underestimate me! I'm not gonna lose!" Naruto insisted, only to be ignored once more.

"I've made my decision Masaru." Iruka said, a hint of steel entering his normally kind voice. "Get in position."

"Fine." Masaru said, reluctantly taking his position. Addressing his opponent for the first time, he said. "I won't drag this out; I'll make it quick and clean."

"Funny, I was gonna say the same thing to you." Naruto declared with a confident smile on his face.

Masaru smirked and gave a soft chuckle. "Your self-confidence really is unshakable, isn't it?" He asked rhetorically. "Alright then, show me what you've got, Naruto!"

Naruto charged directly at his opponent, letting out a loud battlecry as he unleashed a small hail of blunted practice shuriken and kunai. Masaru dodged through the rain of thrown weapons fluidly, moving with an easy grace that belied his large size. When Naruto finally made it into close range he tossed a punch at Masaru, who once more elegantly dodged away from the attack, then slammed a fist into Naruto's face. The boy immediately dropped to the ground, knocked out by a single blow.

While the rest of the class discussed this unsurprising outcome Tenten watched with a slight smile, and her suspicions were proven accurate when after a few seconds the boy's body disappeared in a puff of smoke, replaced by a large log.

"Not bad." Masaru muttered. "A replacement … so now Naruto must be … behind me!" The boy quickly drew out several of his own kunai and turned around, confirming that his orange-clad opponent was coming up behind him. Masaru waited until Naruto was too close to dodge easily, then tossed them out in a spread out pattern that would be almost impossible to dodge from that close range.

Much to Masaru's surprise, the boy didn't even try to dodge the attack. However, instead of being stricken by several of the knives the weapons just passed right through him. "A clone?" Masaru asked. "Then where's the real…"

The rest of Masaru's question was cut off when the log at his feet suddenly transformed back into Naruto, who had a large budding bruise on his cheek. _Not a replacement … a transformation! _Naruto quickly snapped one of his feet straight up between Masaru's legs, slamming a powerful kick into the boy's groin. Masaru jumped up onto his toes with the impact, and then slumped down to the ground with a pained groan. "That's what you get for underestimating me." Naruto declared hotly after Iruka called the match and declared Naruto the winner.

"A mistake I will not be repeating in the future." Masaru groaned, slowly staggering to his feet. "You were a worthy opponent after all. Just one question, Naruto." The taller let out another groan of discomfort, and then asked in a pained voice. "Did you have to kick me in the balls?"

Naruto gave a sheepish chuckle, and answered. "Well, you're slippery and I didn't figure I'd have any other chances to land a solid hit on you, so I had to be sure to take you down with one shot. From where I was, that was the best way to do it."

"Quite." Masaru agreed. "I'll need to add a bit of padding to that region before I get into another fight; being kicked there is … unpleasant." With a pained grimace, Masaru added. "This pain is not experience I would care to repeat in the future." With a final nod of acknowledgement, Masaru limped off of the battlefield, and Naruto left as well, making his way to Tenten's side.

"Nice going Naruto." Tenten congratulated him as he returned from his match with a triumphant grin on his face.

"Looks like all your help paid off Tenten-chan!" Naruto said, before smirking and adding. "Of course, I was always pretty awesome deep down, I just needed a bit of help on figuring out the simple stuff so I could start kicking ass like I was supposed to. I am gonna be Hokage one day after all."

"Yeah, sure." Tenten replied, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, I was mostly just letting you think you were helping me so you'd feel good about yourself." Naruto insisted.

"Thank you so much." Tenten answered, sarcasm thick in her voice.

"You're welcome Tenten-chan." Naruto said with an honest smile, taking the girl's words at face value as he failed to grasp the obvious sarcasm in her tone.

Tenten considered correcting Naruto, but finally just sighed and shook her head in weary resignation. She might have grown to like the boy pretty well, but she had to admit that sometimes he really could be a little dim.

"Your loser boyfriend just got lucky." A girl by the name of Maeko Kimura scoffed, glaring in Tenten's general direction. The petite girl flicked a hand through her short blue hair, and with a nasty smirk added. "You'll miss all the time you wasted trying to make him any better your match come up, you probably haven't had any time to train yourself if you've been so busy with a hopeless case like him."

"First off, Naruto's not a loser or my boyfriend." Tenten began. "And I can tell you right now, he's helped me too, so I'll have no problems beating whoever they match me up against."

"Uzumaki's loser aura has rubbed off on you, you won't even last a minute before your fight's over." Maeko said in a bored, superior tone.

"I wouldn't need an entire minute to kick your ass." Tenten countered. _Maybe Naruto has rubbed off on me a little bit, that sounds exactly like the sort of thing he would say. _Tenten's suspicion was reinforced when she heard Naruto quietly mutter under his breath, just loud enough for her to hear "Nice one Tenten-chan." Turning her attention back to Maeko, Tenten asked, "Didn't your parents ever teach you any manners?"

Maeko's fists clenched at her sides, and an enraged snarl made it's way onto her face. "I'll rip your fucking head off you – you…" Maeko struggled to find an appropriate insult, and finally was forced to settle on "Ugly bun-headed hag." Tenten was less than impressed by the girl's lackluster attempt at an insult, and would have been content to ignore the Maeko if she had left it at that. However, instead of continuing to target Tenten Maeko switched to one of her more common targets. "Don't let the win go to your head, Uzumaki. If you hadn't cheated and hit Masaru with a cheap shot you never would have won."

"Naruto didn't cheat." Tenten snapped, fixing the other girl with a glare; Tenten could tolerate Maeko's general nastiness when it was aimed at her, but going after Naruto was unacceptable.

"He must have" Maeko insisted, sneering at the boy in question. "A loser like him could never have beaten Masaru in a fair fight."

"Naruto's not a loser, and Masaru himself said Naruto won because he was a better fighter who used better tactics." Tenten insisted. With a smirk of her own, Tenten added. "You know I would fight you for insulting my best friend, but my father always told me I'm not supposed to hit dogs."

Tenten's riposte took a second to sink in, and then Maeko let out an enraged shriek. Moving to control the situation, Iruka quickly called out. "Maeko, Tenten, you two are next." If the two girls were going to get into a fight it was better to have it under the auspices of a sanctioned and supervised match than as a mere brawl. It wasn't the fairest match-up; Tenten was the number two kunoichi and ranked fourth in the class overall while her opponent was barely keeping above Rock Lee for the class's dead last position, but Iruka had long believed Maeko could use a wake-up call about her poor skills. Rock Lee's poor marks were a result of his inability to use ninjutsu or genjutsu; Maeko had no such excuse, and had arrogantly blamed her poor marks on everyone but herself.

When the match began Tenten let a dozen shuriken fly in Maeko's direction, hitting several of the girl's vital points; if the weapons hadn't been blunted for use in sparring matched Maeko would have been thoroughly killed by the attack, and everyone watching the match knew it.

Everyone except Maeko, apparently. "That was pathetic Tenten! Even Naruto could have done better, and he's a loser who only won his fight by cheating!" The arrogant girl insisted, keeping up her barrage of insults.

Tenten entertained a brief fantasy of using some of her sharpened weapons, then looked to Iruka, waiting for him to call the match over. Instead, the sensei gave Tenten a quick nod, then jerked his head in Maeko's direction. _Why isn't he ending the match? I've won, even if Maeko's too stupid to realize it. It doesn't make sense … oh well, I really wanted to hit Maeko some more anyway._

Maeko's next insult was cut off by a blunted shuriken to the throat, which left the girl gagging and gasping for air. With a smirk, Tenten asked. "Had enough?" Maeko managed to gag out something that Tenten thought might have been a surrender, but her words were difficult to make out. Tenten wasn't about to take any unneeded risk that the girl might be up to something, and quickly closed in and slammed a powerful kick right into Maeko's stomach. _She didn't try to dodge, and she looked kind of surprised when I hit her. Maybe she was trying to give up. _Tenten watched as Maeko fell to her knees and vomited up her half-digested lunch, then gave the mental equivalent of a shrug._ Oh well, the bitch had it coming._

"That's enough." Iruka called out, "Tenten wins, just in case anyone wasn't sure."

Tenten made her way back to her position next to Naruto, and noticed with some concern that the boy wasn't jumping up and down shouting congratulations in her general direction as she had come to expect from him. "Naruto, you alright?" The girl asked, suddenly worried about her friend.

"Hey, Tenten-chan?" Naruto asked, sounding a bit subdued.

"What is it?" The girl inquired.

"You said you wanted to fight Maeko 'cause she said some nasty stuff about me, and then you said I was your best friend." Naruto continued. "So … you really beat her up just for saying that kinda stuff about me?"

"That's what friends are for." Tenten said, ruffling the short boy's hair and shooting him a smile. "You know, having fun, teaching each other cool jutsu, emotional support, beating the crap out of anyone who badmouths us, the usual sort of friendship stuff."

"Yeah…" Naruto said, trailing off before suddenly perking up and returning to his normal self. "So, has anyone been saying anything mean about you Tenten? "Cause … 'cause if they have I'll totally kick their sorry asses! Nobody insults my best friend! Just tell me who I've gotta beat up and I'll do it, even if it was Neji saying bad stuff! It was Neji, wasn't it? Wait here and I'll go kick his ass!" The hyperactive boy turned towards the Hyuuga genius and cracked his knuckles.

Tenten sighed and gave an amused chuckle while placing a restraining hand on Naruto's arm. "Nobody's been insulting me, Naruto. Thanks for the offer though."

"Hey, that's what friends are for, Tenten-chan. Hey … wanna go get some ramen?"

"Sure."


	2. Senseis and Training

**Disclaimer:** Don't own Naruto.

* * *

"Why the hell is our sensei three freaking hours late!" Naruto shouted out in frustration. Naruto had been delighted when he not only succeeded at graduating from the ninja academy, but wound up on the same genin team as TenTen. The third member of their team was Rock Lee, who had barely managed to slip out of the much-hated dead last position thanks to a particularly poor performance by Maeko. Lee seemed like a decent enough guy, and Naruto had always felt a certain degree of kinship with someone who, much like he once had, seemed to constantly fail no matter how hard he tried to succeed. Naruto had a hard time imagining a better genin team to end up on; there were certainly shinobi who had higher grades in his class, but his current teammates were, in Naruto's opinion, some of the better people in the class.

However, the three hour wait for his new jonin-sensei to show up had done a lot to dim Naruto's initial enthusiasm about his new team. His only consolation was that at least his team wasn't the only one left waiting impatiently for their sensei; one of the other senseis was just as late as the one for Naruto's team, so there were six genin waiting impatiently instead of just three. He didn't really know any of the people in the other team though, so he'd passed most of the long wait chatting with (and gradually getting on the nerves of) TenTen. "And then I was like, 'gotcha!' and I kicked him right in the balls, and that totally took that guy out in a single hit. It. Was. Awesome!"

"I know Naruto, I was there." TenTen sighed with wearied resignation. While she was normally patiently indulgent of his antics and need to brag, Naruto was starting to push past the point of toleration. "The fight was only four days ago, you don't have to tell me about it, I still remember it quite well."

"Oh, oh, did I tell you about how I tricked him by…"

"Naruto." The girl groaned, "Can you please be quiet, or at least talk about something else?"

"But … but I haven't told you about how I…"

"Yes you have." TenTen cut him off. "You've told me about the entire fight at least three times while we've been waiting."

"Well, I did kick ass." Naruto insisted petulantly.

"Yes, yes you did, and I was quite impressed by it." TenTen smiled at her friend, and gently requested. "Now, can you please, please stop talking about it?"

"Fine." Naruto grumbled, folding his arms across his chest and pouting. Suddenly, the boy perked up and said, "Wait, I don't think I told you about how right after I hit Masaru he was all, like…"

"Naruto!" The long-suffering girl finally snapped. "I swear, if you mention that fight one more time, just one more time, I will … I will … I'll go get a bowl of ramen and eat it right in front of you." Noticing the boy perk up at the mention of his favorite food, TenTen added. "And I won't let you have any of it."

The boy slumped, and grumbled, "You can be really mean sometimes TenTen-chan." Realizing he'd gotten on the girl's nerves just a bit too much, he quickly added an apology while nervously rubbing the back of his head . "Sorry TenTen-chan. I just get a little excited sometimes."

"It's alright." The girl assured him. "Just … don't mention that fight again. Please."

"Alright." The boy agreed, finally dropping the topic, and studiously ignoring the fact that several of the other waiting genin muttered thanks to TenTen for finally getting Naruto to shut up about his match. Worried that he might unintentionally annoy his best friend again, Naruto decided it was time to get to know his other teammate and turned his attention to Rock Lee, who had devoted much of the time they were waiting for their senseis to his ongoing efforts to improve upon his abysmal ninjutsu, with a notable lack of success. "Hey, Bushy Brows." Naruto called out.

"Bushy Brows?" Lee asked, raising one of the brows in question while regarding Naruto curiously.

"Hey, have you seen your eyebrows man?" Naruto asked. "They're freaking huge!"

"Don't be rude, Naruto." TenTen chided the boy gently.

"I'm not being rude, it's just a fact that the guy's got big eyebrows." Naruto insisted. Turning his attention back to Lee, Naruto continued with his original line of thought. "So anyway, if we're gonna be on the same team we probably oughta get to know each other, right?"

Lee gave a nod of agreement. "I agree Naruto-kun." Considering the fact that Naruto had already given him a nickname, Lee judged it quite appropriate to use a somewhat familiar form of address with him.

"Alright then … um … well, what's the deal with you then?" Naruto said uncertainly "What do you like, dislike, why do you wanna be a ninja, what are your good skills, all that sort of crap you do when you're introducing yourself to people."

"Ah, right." Lee agreed. His face coloring in shame, Lee admitted "Well, as you know I don't really have any good skills, and I don't seem to be able to use ninjutsu or genjutsu at all." Suddenly Lee's shame disappeared, replaced with determination. "However, I will prove that I can be a great ninja even if I can't use those skills. I might not be a genius or a brilliant shinobi, but I will not fail! I will become a great ninja, even if I can never use any genjutsu or ninjutsu!"

"Wow … that's pretty cool." Naruto said, impressed by his teammate's determination. _Reminds me of how I always said I was gonna become the Hokage, even though I used to be the dead last._ "Well, I bet you'll pull it off; I mean, everyone used to call me a failure, and now I've managed to become a pretty good ninja myself. All this talk about 'geniuses' and 'losers' is stupid anyway; I might've had crappy grades in the academy, but I still kicked the ass of one of the best students when we had a fight."

"Right." Lee said with a sharp nod. _Naruto was once a failure, but he succeeded through hard work and determination! If he can do it then so can I!_ Turning his attention to his teammate, Lee asked. "Your dream is to become Hokage, right Naruto-kun? You have mentioned your desire to become the next Hokage several times."

"Yup, that's my plan!" Naruto agreed with a grin.

With a sigh, TenTen said, "Naruto, that's a great dream but maybe you should set a more … modest goal to start with. After all, becoming the Hokage will take a long time." _Naruto's a nice guy, but only the best of the elite ever have a chance of becoming the Hokage. If he doesn't set a more realistic goal he'll just be disappointed when he fails, and I don't want to see that._

One of the other genin wasn't nearly so sensitive. "Yeah, right! You might not be as much of a loser as you used to be Naruto, but you're still a long way from Hokage material. Only a genius like Neji would ever have a chance of making it to Hokage."

"I think that Naruto can do it." Lee quietly declared.

"What was that, Bushy Brows?" Naruto asked, not sure he'd heard the boy correctly.

"If I can become a great ninja despite not being able to use ninjutsu or genjutsu then Naruto can become the Hokage one day." Lee insisted. _Naruto said he believed in my dream, so I will believe in his!_

The other genin fell silent at that declaration, while Naruto eyed Lee with surprise. "Hey Bushy Brows … do you really think I'll become Hokage one day?"

"Yes Naruto-kun." Lee said. "I do."

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto agreed. "And when I do, you'll be one of my top-ranked jonin, won't you?"

Lee smiled. "I would like that."

"Awesome!" Naruto declared enthusiastically. "That'll show all those people who talk about elite geniuses and losers; a pair of losers becoming the best ninjas in all of Konoha!" Lee nodded in agreement, and Naruto shot him a wide grin. Turning his attention back to TenTen, Naruto asked. "Hey, TenTen-chan, what're you gonna do when we take over Konoha?"

"I'll be Konoha's top-ranked kunoichi, just like the great Tsunade-sama." TenTen said, deciding there was no harm in indulging in the boys' game. "And I'll probably end up being one of your closest advisors too, if you're in charge of Konoha you'll need my help after all." With a smirk, TenTen added. "I'll probably be the secret power behind the throne who's really running things while just letting you think you're in charge."

"Or maybe I'll just let you think that you're secretly running and I don't know, when really I'm secretly running everything you're doing, so I'll be the secret power behind the secret power behind the throne, on top being in charge anyway." Naruto shot back, seeming quite pleased with himself.

"Um … what?" TenTen asked, struggling to make sense of Naruto's counter. "You know what, never mind. I think if you actually tried to explain what you meant by that it would just make things worse."

Any response from Naruto was cut off when the door to the classroom finally opened and a rather unusual-looking ninja stepped in. _What's with that hair? And why does he have one of his eyes covered with his headband? And … is he reading a dirty book? What a weirdo._ "Hey guys." The mysterious new ninja called out to the classroom. "Sorry I'm late, but there was this old lady that …" Kakashi trailed off as he noticed that there were two genin teams waiting in the room. "Huh, that's never happened before. Which of you is team seven?"

The other team hesitantly raised their hands. The mysterious jonin looked them over, then turned his eyes to Naruto's team. "Darn, I was kina hoping it would be you guys … I don't like the looks of that other team." Looking them over more closely, the man's one visible eye widened in surprise. "Naruto Uzumaki?" The man asked, looking in Naruto's direction.

"Yeah, that's me." Naruto replied, wondering why this mysterious new jonin seemed interested in him.

"That's funny, the last time I asked Iruka he said you had no chance of graduating." The other genin team had a laugh at Naruto's expense, while the jonin gave a careless shrug and continued. "Then again, that was before I went away on a month and a half long mission, so I guess that must have changed. Oh well." The man gave another disinterested shrug, then asked casually. "So which team are you guys on anyway?"

"Uh … we're team nine." TenTen responded.

"Gai's team?" The jonin asked. "That's weird, he usually shows up early or on time, not late like this."

"Ha-ha!" A energetic voice cried out from the hallway. "You thought I had forgotten about our challenge, didn't you Kakashi!" Another jonin, this one wearing a green jumpsuit and sporting a bowl haircut, strode into the room and shot team nine a sparkling smile. "Sorry I'm late, but my eternal rival challenged me to show up even later than him to pick up my new genin team."

"I did?" Kakashi asked. _I really need to stop agreeing to whatever crazy challenge he thinks up just to make him go away when he interrupts my reading time._

"Your hip attitude won't fool me this time, Kakashi." Gai declared, fixing his rival with a triumphant glare.

"Of course not." Kakashi declared dully. Kakashi looked over the genin once more, then asked his rival. "Hey Gai, I really don't like the looks of my team this year, but your student look like they might not suck too much. How about we swap teams?"

"Ah, I see you've noticed the fires of youthful spirit within my team as well, exactly the sort thing I expect from my eternal rival." Gai congratulated him. "However, that youthful spirit was what made me want them so much as my genin team as well, so I'm afraid I'll be keeping them."

"Hmm." Kakashi looked to his own genin team, which was glaring at him with a mixture of anger and embarrassment. "Maybe we could just swap one person then? My team would suck a lot less if I had blondie there on it." Kakashi said, pointing out Naruto. "I'll even let you take you pick of any of the people on my team, they all look like they're pretty crappy anyway." Several of Kakashi's students objected at that declaration, especially since all of them had better grades than Naruto.

"Hey!" Naruto cried out. "I kinda like being on this team with TenTen-chan and Bushy Brows! I don't wanna end up with those guys instead."

"Sorry Kakashi." Gai said with triumphant smirk, "but I don't want to mess up my team's balance by switching people around at the last minute, and Naruto would rather stay on my team." _I thought you might be interested in Naruto, my eternal rival, that's why I made sure to get him and his best friend on my team, especially since they're exactly the sort students I would have wanted anyway._

"Oh well, if you're sure about that." Kakashi grumbled, looking a bit put out with Gai. "Alright then crappy team, meet on the roof." With a puff of smoke Kakashi disappeared, and with a number of discontented grumbles his genin team slowly left their seats and headed towards the roof.

"I always feel sorry for Kakashi's teams," Gai said, "So far he's failed every since genin team that's ever been assigned to him." Gai shook his head, then turned his attention to his students. "Ah, I was so distracted by my eternal rival that I forgot to introduce myself. I am Konoha's beautiful green beast, the mighty Gai, and I'll be your jonin-sensei!" The man gave them a thumbs up and another bright smile.

"Is it just me, or is our sensei a little nuts?" Naruto muttered to TenTen.

"It's not just you." TenTen replied. "Trust me, it's not just you." With a thoughtful expression, TenTen continued "That Kakashi guy didn't seem much better though; I hope not all of the jonin are that crazy."

"Now then," Gai continued, unaware of his students' side conversation. "I overheard you introducing yourselves to each other while I was waiting for my eternal rival, so once I've told you a bit about myself we can move on to …" Gai noticed that TenTen had tentatively raised her hand. "Ah, did you have a question for me TenTen? Please, ask."

"Uh, Gai-sensei." TenTen began hesitantly. "How long did you wait outside before coming into the classroom?"

"I showed up half an hour early in case Kakashi tried to trick me by showing up early, he can be a very devious opponent sometimes, so I was waiting for three and a half hours." The man declared calmly.

"Oh. Huh." _Yup, he's completely insane. That's just fantastic._ "You're … very dedicated Gai-sensei."

"A ninja must be dedicated and filled with youthful vigor to achieve true greatness." Gai declared, favoring TenTen with another smile. "Now then, Naruto, Lee, I'm very pleased that you've decided to support each other in achieving your dreams, and I promise you that as your sensei I will do everything I can to help you achieve both of your goals. It won't be easy, but with hard work you will triumph!" Gai suddenly paused and seemed to grow more serious before continuing. "However, before I can dedicate myself to teaching you, you must prove your dedication to learning; I'll be giving you a test tomorrow to see if you are truly prepared to become full-fledged genin; meet me at training field nineteen at sunrise and we will begin.

"What exactly will we be doing, Gai-sensei?" Lee asked.

"Oh, just a little bit of light training." The jonin assured his new students.

* * *

"Light training my ass." Naruto groaned, collapsing to the ground. TenTen let out a weak sound halfway between a grunt and a moan that was probably intended to be agreement with Naruto, while Lee was still too busy gasping for breath to say anything. TenTen was grateful she'd thought to bring some water for herself and Naruto to Gai's training exam; after a couple hours both of them had been so thirsty that they had swallowed most of what they had available before realizing that Lee hadn't brought anything for himself. The two had shared what they had left, but Lee was definitely suffering from not having had as much water as his teammates. Hard work and dedication were all well and good, but dehydration was a far more powerful force.

Gai-sensei's training had started tamely enough, with them working through all the standard warm-up exercises, and Gai guided them through a fairly vigorous but not particularly unusual exercise routine. Then, just when the genin thought that they had gotten through Gai's test, he had told that now that they were done warming up they could start in on the real training routine.

Three hours later, all of the genin were past exhausted. Whenever it seemed like they were managing reasonably well with whatever Gai had them working on he had found new and creative ways to make the task twice as hard; so far Naruto had done laps running forwards, backwards, jumping, even a couple while walking on his hands instead of his feet. His second wind had long since come and gone, but it seemed like no matter how hard they worked Gai was never satisfied. Every time they managed to finally finish one of the man's insane exercises, he simply came up with new, even harder and crazier one. To the man's credit, he was at least going through all the exercises along them, but that didn't change the fact that the workload he was piling on them was nothing less than insane.

"Well, that was a bracing little workout." Gai declared joyously as he came upon his exhausted charges. "Now then, how about we start getting serious about this?"

"Serious?" Naruto shouted, finally snapping. "We can barely even stand after everything you've put us through, and you're saying we haven't even really gotten started?"

Turning a smile on Naruto, Gai cheerfully said. "The path to becoming Hokage is filled with hard work, my youthful student."

"Hard work?" TenTen blurted out in shocked indignation. "This isn't hard work, this is insanity!"

"Y … yes." Lee gasped out between gulps of air. "I … I don't think I can even take another step. I thought I had been training myself hard, but this…"

"Yeah, I've never been so tired in my life!" Naruto exclaimed.

"So," TenTen declared, bolstered by the support of her teammates. "We're done, we're not taking one more step; I think we've done more than enough of your crazy training."

"Crazy?" Gai asked, his normally jovial face darkening. "You guys said you wanted to be great ninjas, the best of your generation, and if you're not prepared to work hard to accomplish that goal then you'll never fulfill your dreams. Lazy brats like you don't even deserve to call yourselves ninjas!"

"Lazy!" Naruto shrieked, leaping to his feet. "Did you just call us laxy? We've been doing your crazy exercises for hours, we're all past exhausted, and now you say that wasn't good enough?" Naruto's face screwed up in anger. "You know what? Screw you! I'll kick your sorry ass with your crazy eyebrows that even bigger than Lee's and make you acknowledge me!"

"Naruto!" TenTen snapped at her friend. "You can't fight a jonin! Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

Leveling an accusing finger at his sensei, Naruto shouted. "C'mon TenTen! This asshole's worked us into the ground past the point where anyone else would've given up and quit, and now he's gonna tell us we just didn't try hard enough? I'm not gonna take this kinda crap!"

With a helpless sigh, TenTen said. "You're determined to do this aren't you?"

"Yeah." Naruto said tightly, dropping into a combat stance.

"You're completely insane." TenTen groaned, before turning to face Gain a reaching into her pouch for a handful of shuriken. "And so am I for going along with you." The girl shot Naruto a quick smile and said. "You think I'd let you fight a jonin alone? Besides, you're right, this jerk needs an ass-kicking."

Lee was still too short of breath to say much, but the determination in his eyes as he staggered to his feet and stood beside Naruto and TenTen made it clear that he was with them.

Gai looked over his students for a tense moment, then burst out into delighted laughter. "Such fire! Such youthful passion! I had good feeling about this team, and now I can see that you really are going to be wonderful students!"

"Uh … what?" Naruto asked, puzzled by his sensei's sudden reversal.

With a cheerful chuckle, Gai explained. "The real test was never to see how strong or fast you were or how long you could go on. Speed, strength, endurance, jutsu, these are all things you can learn with proper instruction and hard work. However, the most important quality of any ninja is something that I can never teach you, and the true purpose of my test was to fine out whether or not you possess this quality.".

"What is that, Gai-sensei?" TenTen asked.

"The fiery passion of youth!" Gai exclaimed, giving them another thumbs up while offering them a brilliant smile. "The refusal to accept to failure! The determination to press on even when the task seems impossible! The strength to carry on when your body wants to quit! It is the one thing I cannot teach you, but so long as you are filled with youthful determination and exuberance I can teach you every other aspect of being a brilliant shinobi."

"So … we were supposed to stand up to you?" Lee asked.

Gai chuckled. "I've never actually had a team go quite that far before, but then I pushed you guys a lot harder than usual." With a smile, Gai added. "It took a lot more to get you to your breaking point than it usually takes a group of new genin, and when you did you demonstrated far more youthful fire than any other team I've ever had; that's how I know you'll be magnificent shinobi!"

"So we pass?" Naruto asked, still a little confused about the entire situation..

"You pass, my wonderful students!" Gai assured them. "Now go get some rest, we'll start training tomorrow." With a smile, he added. "And don't worry, it will be hard work, but I won't push you farther than you're able to go." After delivering one more of his smiles Gai disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Huh." Naruto said, frowning in thought. "That guy's actually a kinda cool sensei."

"Cool?" TenTen asked. "He's insane!"

"Oh yeah, he's definitely completely freaking nuts." Naruto agreed. "But even though he's nuts, he's still kinda cool."

"I agree with Naruto." Lee declared. "Gai-sensei might be a little eccentric, but I think he really will help us to reach our full potential as ninjas."

TenTen eyed her teammates incredulously. "Yeah … but remember the part where he's crazy?"

Naruto gave a careless shrug. "As long as he gives us lots of good training and teaches us awesome ninja skills I can live with him being a little crazy." The boys paused in thought, then added. "Aren't the crazy ones supposed to be the best teachers anyway?"

TenTen sighed.. _I think I might be the only sane person on this team._

* * *

After a few weeks of Gai's training and several simple D-rank missions TenTen was pleased to see that her worries about the sanity of her team were somewhat exaggerated. Gai's ranting about the power of youth was certainly strange at first, but after a while she'd gotten used to it, and had even come to realize that Gai's ideas had a certain degree of validity. Naruto had certainly become a stronger, better ninja because of his refusal to accept failure, Rock Lee's determined efforts were inspiring to anyone who watched him, and TenTen herself had to admit that her she was just as driven as her teammates, though not as outspoken about it. Sometimes TenTen almost started to think her sensei might not be so crazy after all.

A comfortable illusion, but one that was inevitably shattered by moments like this.

"Very well, my eternal rival!" Gai declared with a dramatic flourish. "I accept your challenge to a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, and if I lose I will do five hundred laps around Konoha." Gai paused dramatically, then added, "On my hands!"

"Five hundred laps … on his hands … over a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors." TenTen said dully.

"Yeah, that's even crazier than the usual sort of crazy stuff Gai-sensei does." Naruto agreed.

"That's really not necessary." Kakashi said mildly. "I don't know why you're always adding crazy conditions like that to our challenges anyway."

"Why does Gai-sensei do that sort of thing all the time?" Lee asked.

"Who cares?" Naruto answered. "I just hope he doesn't start expecting us to do that sort of thing too. I'm fine with him being crazy and all so long as he doesn't expect us to be crazy with him."

"I don't think Gai-sensei is crazy." Lee said earnestly. "There's probably a reason behind his behavior. The boy paused thoughtfully, then added. "Maybe I should ask Gai-sensei why he's always giving himself challenges and conditions over things that don't matter sometime."

"You can try asking him tonight while he's doing his laps." TenTen supplied, pointing out that Gai had just lost his latest competition with his eternal rival.

Gai looked up to his students and cheerfully called out. "I'll be busy for the next couple days doing my laps, so train on your own." Five seconds later Gai was already standing on his hands and making his way down Konoha's streets while his students stared at his retreating form in horrified fascination.

Once Gai's upside-down form had faded into the distance Kakashi glanced up at Gai's team, then gave a lazy wave of his hand in their direction. "Hey guys. How's Gai-sensei working out for you?"

"He's nuts, but I think we're learning a lot." Naruto supplied; after a moment his teammates nodded in agreement with Naruto's description

"Yeah, that sounds about right." Kakashi said carelessly.

"What happened to your genin team, Kakashi-san?" Lee asked curiously.

"Oh, they were about as terrible as I expected them to be; they failed my test." Kakashi supplied. "Shame I couldn't convince Gai to swap, I'm pretty sure you guys would have passed."

"Really?" Naruto asked, curious now. "Gai-sensei's test was to see if we had youthful spirit or whatever, so what's your test like?"

Kakashi paused in thought for a moment, and then responded. "I test people on their teamwork, not passion and determination like Gai. Each sensei has different qualities they look for in their students."

"Teamwork?" TenTen asked. "Well, Naruto and I are good friends and train together a lot so we could probably do pretty well at that, and we both get along with Lee so that wouldn't be a problem."

"Yeah, TenTen and Bushy Brows are a nice and I get along great with them, so we'd definitely have nailed your test with no problem." Naruto declared.

"Really?" Kakashi asked, amused by Naruto's unshakable confidence. "You think you would have no problem with a test that no team I've ever had has ever been able to pass?"

Lee frowned in thought, then said. "There must be something more to this test than just basic teamwork, right Kakashi-san?"

"Well, it is a bit more complicated than just being able to work together." Kakashi answered cheerfully. "Basic teamwork is enough to get past the first half of the test, but the second part is really tricky."

"Well … well what is the second part of your test then?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi paused, then said. "Well, if I tell you guys will you promise not to tell anyone else? I don't want my next genin team to come in already knowing the secret of how to pass my test after all."

"Yeah yeah, sure." Naruto agreed eagerly. "Just tell me what the next part is."

"Well… I think just to be safe I'll change up the details a bit; don't worry, the basic principles are still the same" Kakashi said, before leaning in and whispering conspiratorially. "So … here's the test. What would you do if TenTen was having a lot of trouble passing my test? In this situation you've already passed, but the rules of the test say you aren't allowed to do anything to help them, and if you try you'll be sent back to the Academy."

Naruto frowned in thought and hesitantly asked. "How much trouble is she having?"

"Oh, she wouldn't have a chance of passing." Kakashi assured him.

"No way!" Naruto insisted. "There's no way TenTen-chan would be failing your stupid test!"

"Just assume she is and answer the question." Kakashi told him.

"But … but that's stupid!" Naruto insisted. "TenTen-chan's way too cool to fail your stupid test!"

"Maybe." Kakashi conceded, "But for the purposes of this scenario let's assume that…"

"But there's no way TenTen-chan would be failing!" Naruto stubbornly insisted.

"It's a hypothetical example." Kakashi patiently explained.

"I don't care if it's a hypo-whatsit, TenTen-chan wouldn't fail!" Naruto declared, crossing his arms and glaring at the one-eyed jonin.

"You don't even know what kind of test Kakashi-san would be giving, maybe I would have trouble with it Naruto." TenTen tried to tell her friend. "So, just go along with the question."

"Nuh-uh." Naruto shook his head. "You wouldn't fail any test that guy could come up with."

"Alright, what if it was Lee that was failing?" Kakashi suggested.

"Oh yeah, I could see that happening." Naruto readily agreed, blissfully unaware of Lee's pained sigh when Naruto so quickly went along with the altered scenario, though the boy was soon smiling again when Naruto added. "'Course, Bushy Brows would just keep trying until he got it right, no matter how many tries it took. He's like me that way; we both have trouble at first, but we don't quit until we find a way to win, no matter how long it takes or how hard it is!"

"Well, let's say there's a time limit on the test, and it's just about to run out." Kakashi began. "Will you just let Lee fail, so that he'll have to try again next year while you and TenTen pass with no problems?"

Naruto frowned in thought, then asked. "If I get caught trying to help Bushy Brows then I fail too, right?"

"Yes." Kakashi answered.

"Well then," Naruto said with a smirk. "I better not get caught."

"You would help him, even though it's against the rules?" Kakashi asked. "Even though it could cost you your own ninja career?"

"Well, he's my teammate." Naruto answered. "Besides, it's not like you'd catch me; you've only got one eye, so getting past you wouldn't be that hard."

"Well then," Kakashi said, his expression darkening as sudden anger entered his normally placid voice. "I think I can say that if you had ever taken my test you would have definitely." The man paused dramatically, and then finally declared in a much calmer, pleasant tone, "Passed."

"He would pass by breaking the rules?" TenTen asked, confused by the man's declaration. "But … at the academy they always told us that ninjas who don't obey the rules and follow orders are dishonorable scum."

"Yes." Kakashi replied. "That may be so … but in my opinion ninjas who abandon their comrades are worse than dishonorable scum. Obeying the rules is a fine thing, but on the battlefield you need to know that your comrades will support you, no matter what. Nothing is more important than that." Kakashi declared emphatically. "Nothing."

Silence descended over the group as they absorbed Kakashi's words. After a few moment's Kakashi seemed to return to his normal listless self as he said. "Well, I suppose I should get going; the Hokage's probably got another mission for me to do, and I don't want Gai to think I'm trying to steal his students while he's off being his usual crazy self. Later guys." With another careless wave of his hand the jonin turned to go, and a scroll slipped out of his back pocket and rolled across the ground to rest against Naruto's feet.

"Hey! Wait up Kakashi-san!" Naruto shouted out, snatching up the scroll. "You dropped this!" The boy declared, leaving his teammates behind as he chased after the jonin while waving the scroll in Kakashi's general direction.

"Huh?" Kakashi asked, turning around to look at the scroll and shaking his head. "No, that's not mine, it must belong to you."

"Nope, it fell out of your pocket, me and TenTen-chan and Bushy Brows saw it." Naruto insisted.

"Well, it's not mine, so I'm pretty sure it must be yours." Kakashi responded.

"No, it's yours." Naruto stubbornly maintained.

"I'm pretty sure if you opened it up and read it you'd realize that you should have it." Kakashi suggested.

"But … but it belongs to you!" Naruto pointed out.

"I'm sure that if you read the scroll you would realize it's yours." Kakashi repeated.

"I'm not gonna read one of your scrolls!" Naruto shouted. "What if it's like those books you like to read?"

"I really think you should just read the scroll." Kakashi stated.

"I don't wanna!" Naruto shouted back.

"We could avoid this entire conversation if you just read the scroll." Kakashi declared mildly.

"Fine, I'll read the freaking scroll!" Naruto agreed. "But if it turns out to be some sort of dirty perverted stuff I'm telling the Hokage and Gai-sensei."

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Kakashi agreed. As soon as Naruto opened the scroll and started reading it Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Hey, I knew this wasn't one of my scrolls." Naruto declared. "I've never seen this jutsu before!" Naruto looked up from the scroll, only to discover that Kakashi was long gone. _Well, that was weird. Oh well, I'll give it back to him next time I see him. Hmm … I suppose since he already told me to read it there's no harm in seeing if any of these jutsu are any good. _Naruto looked the scroll over, and was surprised to note that there were only a couple of jutsu on the scroll; most of the space was taken up with a discussion of tactics and lots of details on how the jutsu worked.

_Wow … this is really neat, and these jutsu they don't look like they'd be too hard to learn; this one only has a single hand seal to use, and that one doesn't involve any hand seals at all. They all need lots of chakra, but I've never had a problem with that. Hey … I'll bet I can learn this Shadow Clone jutsu in no time!_

* * *

_Oh no … _TenTen thought in dull, horrified shock. _It's contagious. _

TenTen didn't want to know what could have possibly happened over the last few days to convince Rock Lee that a bowl haircut and a green jumpsuit were good fashion decisions, but the end result was that the he now looked like a miniature Gai clone. The girl shuddered as her mind treated her to a vivid image of herself sporting a similar haircut and outfit while ranting cheerfully about the power of youth. TenTen shuddered, utterly revolted by the image. _Okay … me as a copy of Gai-sensei is replacing the giant spider in my nightmares.._

"Hello TenTen!" Lee cried out in a passable imitation of their instructor. "Are you ready for another day of hard work and youthful exertions?"

TenTen cringed. _Where's Naruto anyway? He didn't show up to train with me like he normally does … Oh no, what if Gai-sensei's gotten to him too? _TenTen's mind treated her to brief, horrifying vision of herself surrounded by Gai, the new Lee, and Gai-ified Naruto. _No, if Naruto's been turned too I think I'll snap; I'll either end up just like the rest of them, or I'll go insane and kill them all. I never thought I'd say this, but I hope Naruto just stays the same old hyperactive impulsive knucklehead he's always been… _

"Hey guys!" Naruto, who TenTen was relieved to note did not appear to have been stricken by the same madness as Rock Lee, cried out hopping down from the roof of a nearby building to join his team. "How's it hang … whoa." Naruto stared in wide-eyed shock at Lee. "Um … wow … jeez, what the hell Bushy Brows?"

"Ah, hello my most youthful teammate!" Lee greeted, seemingly oblivious to Naruto's shock..

Naruto went to TenTen's side, warily eyeing Lee the entire time. "Um … TenTen-chan?" Naruto whispered to the girl. "Did Bushy Brows just go crazy and turn into a copy of Gai-sensei?"

"Yes Naruto." TenTen whispered back. "Yes he did."

"Yeah … that's kinda freaky."

"I know Naruto, I'm scared too." TenTen paused for a moment, then added. "Don't ever let Gai-sensei do that to you. If you ever do I think I might have to kill you"

"If that happens to me I think I'd want you to." Naruto assured her. "I don't mind Gai-sensei being nuts, but there's no way I'm letting him spread the crazy to me as well."

"Hello my glorious students!" Gai called out cheerfully. "Ah,, I see you've already noticed the new training outfit I've given Lee." The man favored his clone with a smile, then turned to Naruto and TenTen. "Don't worry, I've got outfits for you two as well." Gai pulled out a pair of green jumpsuits that looked perfectly sized for Naruto and TenTen. "These outfits are made of high quality materials that are guaranteed to make your training twice as effective, and they're just like the ones Lee and I wear!"

"Wow, that's awesome!" Naruto cried out. He wasn't too enthusiastic about the idea of wearing a green jumpsuit and would probably never actually use it, but it was hard not to be pleased by the fact that his sensei was giving him a present. Sure, it was weird, freaky, and slightly disturbing present, but it's the thought that counts.

"I'll take care of those." TenTen said quickly snatching both of the jumpsuits away. "I should probably put them somewhere safe while we do our training." _Like in a garbage can or on top of a fire, those are safe places to put these things. I just know these suits would be the first step on the path to ending up like Lee._

"Very well, you can put them on later." Gai said. "Now then, I've decided you're ready for a slightly tougher mission than what we've been doing, so we'll only have a bit of light training before going to the Hokage for our assignment. We'll just do five laps over the training grounds before we go."

"Gai-sensei, if I don't finish first can I do an extra five laps?" Lee asked earnestly.

"Lee, if you don't finish first I'll let you do an extra ten laps!" Gai assured his student.

"Oh … thank you Gai-sensei!" Lee cried out, to all appearances genuinely delighted by Gai's offer.

Naruto and TenTen cringed.


	3. The Price of a Ninja Life

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto.

* * *

"Aw man, not this mission again!" Naruto whined. "It's stupid and boring and we've already done it before!" Turning an offended glare upon the Hokage, Naruto continued. "We've already been genin for two whole months, give us a real awesome mission!"

"Naruto." TenTen hissed under her breath. "Don't yell at the Hokage! Besides, it's a perfectly good mission and you know it." TenTen shot a quick annoyed glare at Gai who was chuckling under his breath and commenting approvingly on Naruto's "youthful enthusiasm" when he should be helping her keep the boy under control. _Naruto's bad enough without Gai-sensei or anybody else encouraging him…_

The Hokage watched the interplay between the two genin with thinly veiled amusement. "This is the second C-ranked mission your squad has gotten, that's nothing to complain about when your team is only two months out of the academy." The old man informed Naruto.

"Yeah, except that it's the exact same freaking mission we had the last time you gave us a C-ranked mission!" Naruto shouted. "And last time we did it that mission was boring as hell! Nothing happened! We just spent an entire week walking around!"

The Hokage let out an amused snort, then said. "Well, that happens when you have an escort mission; sometimes nobody tries to attack the caravan you're protecting. Only desperate or foolish bandits will attack a caravan guarded by squad of Konoha ninjas; the sensible ones just move on to find a softer target." _Not to mention this trade route is pretty secure to begin with so bandits are rare. That's why excort mission along that route are perfect missions to give to fairly fresh genin squads; it gives them a chance to get used to working as a team and being outside of Konoha for several days at a time, and almost no chance that there will be any trouble they can't easily handle._

"Well, how am I gonna get a chance to show off my awesome ninja skills if you keep sending me on missions where nothing happens?" Naruto demanded.

"Maybe we'll run into bandits this time." TenTen offered, hoping to placate her friend enough that he would stop causing a scene.

"We better." Naruto grumbled, a petulant expression making its way onto his face. "If we don't run into, at least, like a dozen bandits or something I'm going to be really pissed off."

"I hope we face at least two dozen bandits when they attack our caravan!" Lee offered. "That would give us an even greater chance to demonstrate our skills!"

"Ah, my most gifted students," Gai declared. "I promise that if we don't run into at least three dozen bandits in the course of our mission I will go out and capture that many, then bring them back you to fight yourselves!"

"Nah, it's gotta at least four dozen." Naruto insisted. "That way each of us gets a dozen of our own to beat up!"

TenTen groaned. "Not this again…" Ever since Lee's transformation he and Gai had a tendency to work each other up into a frenzy as they made increasingly crazier and crazier challenges to each other; on the rare occasions when Naruto jumped into the fray things quickly escalated completely out of control. TenTen desperately looked around the room, hoping to find someone who could stop her crazy teammates before they reached the realm of utter insanity, but Hokage seemed far too amused by Team Gai's antics to put a stop to them. By the time Naruto was declaring that he would defeat a hundred bandits while only using a single finger TenTen decided that desperate times called for desperate measures.

"Naruto, if you'll just be quiet and go get ready for the mission I'll treat you to ramen when we get back." TenTen offered. _I just hope I can afford it with as much ramen as he eats…_

"Yay! Free ramen!" Naruto cheered, before bolting out of the Hokage office. TenTen couldn't help but shake her head in amusement at the ongoing maelstrom of energy and mild insanity that was her best friend. _It's a good thing he's so nuts over ramen or I wouldn't have any way to control him._

Once the Hokage was done chuckling at Naruto's antics he turned to the rest of Team Gai. "Well, there was one other thing I wanted mention before Naruto ran out of the room; you should know that this mission will be a little different, this time when you get to the border with the Land of Lightning you will pass the caravan over to a genin team from Kumo instead of just letting them travel the rest of the way on their own."

"Why can't we just escort the caravan for the entire journey Hokage-sama?" Lee asked.

"There are compelling reasons." The Hokage answered. "I'm sure if you ask your sensei he can explain the situation to you." With a smile, the old man said. "Now, I believe you have a mission to see to and I have a village to run, so if there's nothing else…"

The remaining members of Team Gai gave a quick but respectful bow to the Hokage and departed. On their way out of the Hokage's tower Gai offered a quick answer to Lee's question. "Even though we have an official treaty with them relations with Kumo have been very strained for the last five years; the Raikage has been building up his forces, and there have been a few … incidents. It's better for everyone involved if we let the Kumo shinobi take over the escort at the border." Noting his students' worried expression, Gai said. "It's unlikely that a simple escort mission would actually cause any sort of trouble with Kumo, but why take an unnecessary risk?"

* * *

"Aw man, I'm so freaking bored!" Naruto complained. It was the third day of their escort mission and so far the most exciting thing to have happened was one of the oxen dragging the merchant's cart let out a really loud fart. "When the hell are the freaking bandits gonna get here?"

"With any luck there won't be any bandits at all." The merchant, a well-dressed and somewhat portly man in his mid-thirties, told the boy. "I paid quite a bit of money to make sure you and the rest of your team would scare them all away."

"Aw man…" Naruto whined. "It's not fair! I go on these missions to beat up on stupid bandits, but once they realize just how awesome and badass I am they all go running away instead of giving me a fair fight. I really wanted to kick some ass on this mission…"

"Don't let your fires of youthful passion be quenched so easily Naruto-kun!" Lee cried out. "We will have our chance to show our brilliance yet!" Looking ahead further up the road, Lee called out. "Say, Naruto, shall we race each other to the bridge up ahead?"

"Another race?" Naruto griped. "Jeez Bushy Brows, that's really dumb. I mean, why would I wanna do a stupid race with you when-" Naruto suddenly broke into a full sprint towards the bridge while shouting back over his shoulder, "I already know I'm gonna kick you ass and get there first!"

Lee gave a startled cry as he realized Naruto's trick had gotten him a head start, then quickly took off after his teammate. Not about to be left behind while his students were engaged in youthful competition, Gai quickly took off after both them, starting off well behind but quickly making up for lost ground thanks to his longer legs.

"So…" TenTen sighed. "I guess I'll just stay back here … guarding the merchant … like we're supposed to be doing … while all my teammates act crazy … again."

"Ah, miss?" The merchant asked hesitantly. "Are your teammates … hmm … how to put this?"

"Yes, they're all insane." TenTen replied dully.

"I see." The man frowned in thought, then casually suggested. "Care to make a little wager on the outcome of the race? Obviously your sensei is going to win, but which of the boys do you think will finish first?"

TenTen considered the offer for a moment, then said "Fifty ryo on Naruto to win." Talking to herself the girl added, "Since I'm buying him ramen when we get back it's only fair that he help pay for it, however indirectly."

Apparently her last comment had been loud enough for the merchant to overhead, as chuckled and then said. "He must not be much of a boyfriend if he makes you treat him on dates."

"I … what? No!" TenTen sputtered. "Naruto's not my boyfriend! We're just friends who are going out to dinner … together … and …" TenTen trailed off as she noticed the merchant smiling.

"You know," the man said all too cheerfully. "Usually when a boy and a girl go out to dinner together people call that a date."

"It's not a date." TenTen insisted. "Naruto's just a friend. I don't like him that way."

"Oh, I see." The merchant said, nodding sagely. "It's one of those types of relationships, isn't it?"

"Naruto and I are not in any type of relationship!" TenTen maintained. "We're just friends!"

"Of course TenTen-san, whatever you say." The merchant said, his tone and the expression on his face making it clear he didn't believe her.

"A girl can't spend five minutes in the same room as a boy without people thinking they must be together." TenTen grumbled under her breath. Her mood brightened slightly as she realized that Naruto had managed to beat Lee to the bridge, proving that hard work and training were no match for underhanded sneakiness. Fifty ryo probably wouldn't cover all the ramen Naruto could eat when he got into a proper ramen-eating frenzy (which almost always happened when someone else was paying) but it would at least put a dent in the bill TenTen would have to pay.

* * *

The next few hours passed uneventfully, and after winning his race with Lee Naruto soon went back to complaining about the lack of action. TenTen spent most of that time chatting with Naruto in an effort to keep his tide of complaints down to a dull roar, though she was frequently distracted from this task by the way the merchant would smirk every time he saw the two of them together. _I swear, next time we go out in public I'm going to make Naruto wear a big sign that says "not my boyfriend."_

TenTen was shaken out of her idle musings as the merchant's cart began to unexpectedly slow, and when the girl looked up she saw they were approaching another bridge, but this time the bridge was occupied by a group of shabbily dressed but well-armed men. "Hello there gentlemen." The merchant called out with what sounded like forced cheerfulness. "What brings you here on this fine day?"

One of the men, judging by his slightly less shabby clothes he was the leader of the group, strode forward and answered. "Oh, we're toll collectors for this bridge." The man gave a smile and gestured to the bridge, "As I'm sure you can see, the bridge will need some repairs soon, so the daimyo has asked us to collect a toll from travelers using it until we have enough to hire some experts to oversee the work."

"Is that so?" The merchant asked warily. "How curious that I've never heard about this tax before…"

"Oh, it was just recently imposed sir." The man gave another smile. "I do have to apologize for the inconvenience, but I'm afraid you'll have to pay the toll if you want to go over the bridge. Don't worry, it's only a small fee, roughly ten percent of the value of your goods."

The merchant gave a disarming smile and then replied. "Quite reasonable. Of course, I am certain you can show me that you have all the proper credentials to confirm that you're authorized toll collectors. I apologize for the inconvenience, but you'd be surprised by the sort of tricks bandits will try."

"Ah, quite true." The man agreed. "Unfortunately, we lost our credentials a few days ago; a rather unpleasant merchant asked to see them, then ran off with them."

"Most unfortunate indeed. Sadly, if you don't have any credentials I'm afraid I simply can't pay your toll."

"So that's how it is." The leader said, his tone suddenly darkening. "Alright, I wanted to keep things nice and civilized, but if you're going to be stubborn about it…" The man gave a quick gesture to him followers, and the men drew their weapons and surrounded the cart. "Get off the cart and turn out your pockets; nobody has to die here, so don't cause trouble."

The merchant regarded the bandits for a moment, then gestured back at his guards and said. "Perhaps you haven't noticed the squad of ninjas I have guarding my goods?"

The bandit leader scoffed. "Please, this stretch of the road has been quiet for far too long; nobody buys ninja bodyguards any more. Those headbands don't even look real, you probably just grabbed a couple brats and some old drunk, put fake headbands on them, and then hoped nobody would be smart enough to call your bluff."

"Hey TenTen-chan, what's the deal with these tax collectors anyway?" Naruto whispered. "I mean, they're acting kinda weird."

"That's because they're bandits." TenTen replied.

"Why would the daimyo hire a bunch of bandits to collect his taxes?" Naruto asked.

TenTen sighed. "They're not really tax collectors, that's just a scheme they use to get people to give up their money without a fight."

"So … they're just bandits?" Naruto asked for confirmation.

"Yes Naruto, they're just bandits." TenTen confirmed.

"About freaking time you guys showed up!" Naruto shouted. "Who wants to get their ass kicked first?" Not waiting for a response, Naruto jumped off the cart and snapped a kick at the face of the closest bandit, who didn't even have a chance to react before the blow struck home.

Lee leapt into the fray the next instant, not about to let Naruto beat more of the bandits than him, and TenTen quickly flicked a kunai into the leg of a bandit that was moving into position to flank Naruto. With a smile Gai sat back in the cart and watched; his genin were more than capable of handling this fight by themselves, and someone needed to stay next to merchant just in case any bandits got through.

In less than a minute only two of the bandits, one of whom was the leader, were left standing. "Um … boss?" The only remaining conscious and mobile minion said uncertainly. "I don't think these ninjas are fakes…"

"Just figured that out, did you?" The bandit leader growled in irritation. Turning his attention to the ninjas, the man adopted a polite, diplomatic tone. "Well, we've obviously underestimated the three of you, so let's make a deal. We don't want any more trouble, so we'll just walk away and leave you guys alone if you'll do the same for us. Nobody's gotten really hurt, so there's no reason for there to be any more trouble over this unfortunate incident. Fair enough?"

"Banditry is against the law, we can't just let you go." Lee responded stiffly.

"Besides, if we did let you go you'd just attack someone else later, and then we'd be partly responsible." TenTen added.

"And on top of that." Naruto declared. "Right now Bushy Brows and I are tied at three bandits each, and we've gotta break the tie somehow."

The leader sighed, then asked. "Just to make sure, the punishment for banditry is still death, right?" Upon receiving confirmation the man sighed. "Dammit. I'd really be rather not be executed."

"Perhaps you should have thought about that before turning to robbery." The merchant said coldly.

"Yes, with the benefit of hindsight perhaps that wasn't the best decision I ever made in my life." The man admitted, before giving a resigned shrug. "Well, no way to change that now, but I'm not planning to go down easily." The man and his one surviving companion charged, the leader heading toward Naruto with his blade extended, while his companion was quickly intercepted by Rock Lee..

Naruto quickly pulled out one of his kunai to parry the blade, while TenTen flicked a shuriken into the bandit's leg. The man stumbled and fell as his wounded leg was no longer capable of supporting his charge, and before Naruto even realized what was happening the man's face slammed into the kunai clenched in Naruto's fist. The blade slid up the bandit's cheekbone before finding the bandit's eye and from there momentum carried the blade right into the bandit's brain. Gravity and the corpse's weight dragged Naruto's arm down, and the bloodied kunai slipped free of the bandit's skull with a sickening, liquid sound.

Before Naruto, TenTen, or Lee could even finish processing the bandit's sudden death Gai was there by Naruto's side. "Come along Naruto," The normally boisterous man said quietly "We've got a river right here, so we should clean that blood up before it sets in." Turning to the merchant and the rest of his team, Gai said. "You guys go ahead, Naruto and I will catch up in a bit."

The merchant and his two remaining guards traveled on in silence for several minutes before anybody spoke. "That was the first time I've ever seen someone actually die like that … from violence." The merchant said, sounding more than a little shaken. "Have the two of you …"

"No," Lee said quietly. "We only graduated from the academy a couple of months ago."

"Oh … so … was that the first time any of you…" The merchant trailed off uncertainly.

"Yes." Lee answered, his voice barely above a whisper.

_Naruto… _TenTen stared over the back of the cart in the direction of her friend, hoping he would be alright and blaming herself for the blood on his hands. _If I hadn't hit that bandit in the leg then Naruto wouldn't have… I just hope he's alright._

* * *

Gai was silent as Naruto went down to the river to clean his bloodied clothes and equipment, and if he noticed Naruto desperately washing his hands over and over while muttering that they still smelled like blood the man said nothing about it. By the time Naruto had finally rejoined him night was beginning to fall, and Gai set up a simple camp for the two of them and put together a quick meal; Naruto accepted the rations, but only ate a couple bites of the food.

After Naruto had spent fifteen minutes poking listlessly at his food the boy finally spoke. "Gai-sensei … I killed that guy, didn't I?"

"Yes." Gai replied simply.

"I … I didn't mean to." Naruto whispered. "It's just … everything happened so fast and before I even knew what was happening I had … he was …" Naruto quickly swiped the sleeve of his jumpsuit across his eyes before growling. "Jeez, look at me. Can't even kill a guy without crying, some ninja I am."

"Naruto." Gai said gently. "The first time I killed someone I threw up and then I cried. There's no shame in your pain. It is natural to be distressed by taking another's life."

"I won't do it again." Naruto said determination in his voice.

"Then you'll have to give up being a ninja." Gai told him.

"Couldn't I just be a ninja without killing people?" Naruto asked weakly.

"No." Gai answered. "The life of a ninja is filled with violence and death; if you cannot accept that then you should not be a ninja."

"But … what if that guy had a family?" Naruto suggested, tears still in his eyes. "Maybe he's got a wife and a bunch of kids at home waiting for him to come home. Maybe he never really wanted to be a bandit, but he was forced into it because that was the only way to feed them…"

"All those things are possible." Gai admitted. "But even if they were all true, would you have done anything differently?"

"Of course I would have." Naruto responded.

Gai sighed and shook his head. "Many years ago, when I was only a chunin a few years older than you are now, one of my teammates went through a similar experience." Gai began. "We got into a fight with a genin team from Iwa, and she found that she couldn't kill her opponent, so she spared his life." Gai sighed once more, then said. "Five years later, the genin whose life she had spared had grown up and become a jonin." Gai's head dropped down as he said solemnly "There was a battle, and several of our comrades were killed by that jonin. When my teammate heard that her mercy had resulted in the death of her comrades she killed herself in shame. She blamed herself for their deaths."

Silence reigned over the campsite once more, until Naruto hesitantly said. "So … you're saying that if I hadn't killed that guy then he might've hurt other people, and then I'd feel responsible?"

"Yes." Gai said simply. "We were in the middle of a battle, Naruto. If you hadn't acted TenTen or Lee or even I could have been killed."

"No way!" Naruto insisted. "That guy was no match for any of you. He wasn't even a ninja, he was just a normal guy with a cheap sword."

Gai shook his head once more. "Even a non-ninja can kill a jonin like me if they get lucky. Any one of a million things could go wrong to cause the death of one of your comrades. If you had the chance to kill that man and didn't, how would you feel if it caused the death of one of your comrades?"

"Or maybe everything would've been fine!" Naruto insisted. "TenTen-chan's a lot better than me, she could've taken that guy down without killing him."

"Or she could have been killed." Gai countered. "Are you willing to take that chance? To put the lives of your comrades at risk in order to show mercy to your enemies?"

"No." Naruto answered heavily. Silence reigned once more over the camp, until Naruto found the next question he needed to ask. "Gai-sensei? Is it always gonna hurt this bad? Am I gonna feel this rotten every time I kill someone?"

"In time it will hurt less." Gai assured him. "But the pain will never go away completely."

"So … what do we do?" Naruto asked.

"Everyone finds a different way to deal with price of a shin obi's life." Gai replied. "I hold on to the good things in life; the simple joy of training and hard work, the pleasures of a simple challenge, the energy and passion of youthfulness. Other people find different solutions. Some of us treasure the time we have with our friends and comrades, others hold on to the belief that what we do has made a difference, that the world is a better place because of the lives we have taken." Gai's expression darkened in disapproval as he continued. "Other people say that ninjas are just tools to carry out other people's orders, doing that helps them to distance themselves from their own actions. And some of us…" Gai's mind turned to the man he had declared to be his eternal rival. "Some of us are still trying to find a way to deal with the pain. I can't tell you what to do Naruto, in the end you'll have to answer that question for yourself."

Gai said nothing, but the way he gave Naruto's shoulder a supportive squeeze and shot the boy a quick smile was worth more than any words. Finally the boy spoke up once more. "Hey Gai-sensei. You won't tell TenTen-chan and Bushy Brows that I cried, will you? I don't want them thinking I'm a wuss."

"It'll be our secret." Gai assured him with a smile. "But there's no shame in feeling the passions of emotions of youth, and tears are not a sign of weakness, just a sign of humanity."

"Yeah, you're right." Naruto agreed wiping away the last of his tears.

A comfortable silence descended over the campsite for the better part of an hour as Naruto contemplated Gai's words. Finally, Naruto spoke once more. "I'm not gonna pretend I didn't kill that guy, that I was just someone else's tool. I'm not happy that I killed that bandit, but it happened. He would've tried to hurt my friends if I'd done nothing, and there's no way I'd let someone do that. If somebody tries to hurt my friends, my comrades, or even an innocent bystander … I'll take them down. I won't go out of my way to kill anybody, but … if someone dies because they tried to hurt my comrades … I can learn to live with that." Naruto's voice tightened in determination. "I will learn to live with that." With a start, Naruto bolted to his feet and let out a loud shout. "You hear that world! You mess with my friends and I'm not holding back! From now on, Naruto Uzumaki is cutting loose!"

* * *

TenTen was quite relieved when Naruto and Gai finally rejoined them the next day. "There you are Naruto!" The girl called out. "Are you alright? I was worried about you!" The girl rushed up to him and looked him over, trying to find the slightest hint that there was anything wrong with him.

"Yeah, you know me, I'm always fine." The boy assured her, by all appearances back to his normal hyperactive knuckleheaded self.

"Are you sure?" TenTen asked, fussing with the boy's headband, which she was absolutely certain was a bit off center. "Naruto, if there's anything wrong or you need anybody to talk to you know I'm your friend and I'll be here for you, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, but I'm fine TenTen-chan. Really" Naruto told her. Seeing that the girl was not about to content with such a vague and general assurance, the boy added. "Gai-sensei and I talked about a lot of stuff last night, and I think I've got things figured out pretty well now."

"Oh … well that's good." TenTen said while adjusting Naruto's collar. "I'm glad you're alright, but still, if you ever need someone to talk to…"

"Okay, okay, I get it TenTen-chan." Naruto yelped in exasperation. "Jeez, when'd you turn into such a mother hen anyway?"

"Well, I apologize for caring about my best friend." The girl said stiffly, turning her back on the boy and preparing to walk back to the merchant's cart.

"Hey! Wait! I'm sorry TenTen-chan." Naruto quickly apologized. _Yeah, she was being a bit of a pain, but she was just trying to be nice._

The girl sighed and turned back around to face her friend. "It's alright, I was being a bit of a bother. It's just … I was worried about you."

"Yeah, I kinda thought that was what was going on." Naruto replied. "Next time you get all clingy and nurturing I'll remember that."

"Or you could stop doing stupid things that make me worry about you." TenTen suggested.

"Yeah, but how boring would that be?" Naruto replied, shooting the girl a grin.

"You'll never change, will you?" The girl declared with resigned sigh.

"Nope." Naruto answered cheerfully. Going up to his other teammate, Naruto called out. "Hey Bushy Brows! Everything alright while we were gone?"

"Yes." Lee responded. "I trust you are well, Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah, I'm good." Naruto replied. _Nice thing about guys, when we tell each other we're fine that's all it takes; chicks like TenTen need a bit more than that before they're happy_.

"Excellent." Lee said. "Our client said the border town we'll be stopping in was only an hour or so away, shall we race each other there?"

"You're on Bushy Brows!" Naruto quickly accepted the challenge. Turning to his best friend, Naruto asked "Hey, TenTen-chan? You wanna race with us?"

Normally TenTen did her best to ignore the constant lunatic challenges her teammates indulged in, but for some reason this time the offer sounded oddly appealing. The girl looked to her sensei, who gave her a smile and quick nod. Turning back to her friends, the girl shot Naruto a quick smile, and without ever actually answering his question suddenly took off down the road at a full sprint.

"What the-?" Naruto cried out in surprise. "Hey, that's a dirty trick TenTen-chan!" _I wish I'd thought of that first!_ The two boys shot off down the road, desperate to close the substantial lead their female teammate had gained over them.

"Ah … the joys of youth." Gai said, watching his students with a smile.

* * *

The genin arrived at the village half and hour ahead of their sensei and client, and passed the time while they waited with a mixture of light training and casual chatter. TenTen was quite proud of the fact that she had won their impromptu race, and when Naruto complained that she had only won by cheating she promptly pointed out that trickery and deceit were perfectly acceptable for tactics for a contest between ninjas, and in any case Naruto had done the exact same thing to Lee the day before.

When Gai and their client caught up with the young genin the ssnsei informed his students that they would be meeting with the Kumo team to hand off their client at the village's inn. "Hey, that's the same we place we stayed after the boring escort mission where nothing happened." Naruto declared. "They've got pretty good ramen there! Weren't you gonna buy me ramen TenTen-chan?"

"Yes, but that was when we got back to…" TenTen trailed off when an intriguing thought occurred to her. _He'll probably eat less ramen here than he would at Ichiraku's; after all, he always says Ichiraku ramen is the best ramen in the world. _"Alright, sure." The girl agreed.

The team entered the room, looking about curiously in the hopes of spotting their Kumo counterparts. The inn's owner, a rather boisterously jovial man with an impressively large mustache, cried out a loud greeting when they entered the door. "Ah! The mighty Gai and his valiant team have returned to my humble establishment! Such a joy to see you here once again."

"It's a joy to be back!" Gai cried out just as loudly, running up to the innkeeper and enthusiastically pumping his hand up and down. "I am delighted to see that this place is as filled with the spirit of youthful exuberance as I remembered!" The two men were soon exchanging increasingly loud and colorful pleasantries that devolved into a discussion on the joys of youthful energy..

_I wonder if the two of them are related_… TenTen sighed, wondering once more why she was doomed to be the only sane person in an increasingly insane world.

After the team dropped off their packs in their rooms Lee and Gai went upstairs to see to get the merchant settled into his quarters while Naruto, with TenTen in tow, sought out the innkeeper once more. "Hey, d'you guys still have ramen here?" Naruto asked upon finally finding the man.

"Of course we do young Uzumaki-kun!" The innkeeper cried out. "I made sure we were stocked up as soon as I heard you would be returning! Young men like you always have quite an appetite!"

"Awesome!" Naruto cheered. "TenTen-chan's paying, so I'm gonna eat until my stomach goes kaboom!" TenTen groaned and looked regretfully at her wallet, soon to be the victim of Naruto's insatiable appetite for ramen..

The innkeeper gave a booming laugh, then said. "Well, I'm sure your friend will be glad to hear that your bill has already been covered then." Smiling at TenTen's confused look, the innkeeper went on to explain. "Your Kumo counterpart arrived earlier today and paid for all of your meals. Quite generously I might add."

"They're already here?" Naruto asked, enthusiasm clear in his voice. "Awesome! Where're the Kumo ninjas at? I wanna see what they're like! I heard that in Kumo they…"

The innkeeper let out a jovial belly laugh and held up a hand to forestall any further questions or comments from Naruto. Before the man answered Naruto's question directly the boy heard an amused female voice directly behind him say. "Technically there aren't any Kumo ninjas here, just a Kumo kunoichi."

Naruto and TenTen quickly whirled around to see a rather striking blond woman clad in a purple outfit, proudly wearing a Kumo headband. With a smile the woman said. "You would be Naruto Uzumaki and … TenTen, correct?"

"Yeah that's us!" Turning towards the stairs, Naruto let out a loud cry. "Hey! Bushy Brows, Gai-sensei! The Kumo kunoichi's here to pick up our client!" Turning back to the woman, Naruto asked. "Hey, what's your name anyway?"

Before the foreign ninja could respond Lee and Gai came rushing down the stairs, only to come to an abrupt stop when got a good look at the who Kumo emissary was. "You … I recognize you." Gai declared.

"Well, I'm flattered to know my reputation has reached all the way to Konoha only ten years into my career." The woman said with a satisfied smile.

"Where is the rest of the genin team we were supposed to meet?" Lee asked.

"Oh, there was a last-minute change of plans." The woman explained smoothly. "Instead of sending a genin team they just sent me." With a smile, the woman finally introduced herself. "Special jonin Nii Yugito."

Gai's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "This isn't a coincidence, is it?" Gai demanded. "You're here because of Naruto, isn't that right?"

_Huh? Why would she be here because of me? I don't even know who she is!_

Yugito gave a delighted laugh. "Guilty as charged. I confess, when Konoha sent word to us of who would be on this mission I pulled rank to get it for myself." With a rueful grin the woman added "I suppose I was curious to meet a fellow jinchuriki."

"Oh yeah, that makes sense." Naruto said, a thoughtful expression on his face as he nodded sagely. Completely unaware of Gai's worried expression, Naruto asked. "Hey, Yugito-san, can I ask you something?"

"Of course you can, Naruto-kun."

"What's a jinchuriki?"

* * *

**Reviewer Responses:**

**Aishuu, imgonndie:** Glad you're enjoying it so far, hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

**CelticReaper:** I don't want to give away anything as far as pairings go, but I will say that TenTen will be playing a major role throughout the story. She's definitely the second most important character in the fic and will probably get as much screen time as Naruto himself. If I do end up pairing Naruto with someone else it will be because there's lots of fun potential for interaction between TenTen and any girlfriend of Naruto's; after all, between being his best friend and being one of teammates TenTen will be the most important girl in Naruto's life for a long time.

**Ubernaut:** You'll probably be glad to know I've got things planned quite well all the way up to what will be my equivalent to the Gaara retrieval arc then. Needless to say, things will have diverged quite a bit from cannon by then. I've got the timelines on the wave arc and chuunin exams straight, and as you said right now they're still about a year away. Team Gai won't be involved in events Wave country, butI do have something which I hope will be rather interesting and is to the best of my knowledge fairly original in store for Wave Country. Needless to say, the Chuunin Exams will also be different when they finally happen, and I'm planning have Gai wait until the cannon timeline to put his team in. After all, if I put them through the exams early Team Gai wouldn't get to have any interaction with the Rookie 9, the Sand Siblings, or any of the other crazy things that happened during the exam. How boring would an exam without all those things be?

**aotrscommander:** Naruto definately prefers orange to green. However, my personal interpretation of that entire scene was that Naruto cared far more about the fact that Gai was acknowledging Naruto's skill and ability than about what color the spandex was; Naruto probably would have been almost as happy if it was pink instead.


	4. the Fox and the Cat

**Disclaimer**: I have not suddenly become the new owner of Naruto since writing the last chapter of this fanfic.

* * *

"You … don't know what a jinchuriki is?" Yugito asked, taken aback by the question. "Why wouldn't you know …" Yugito trailed off, then half-murmured. "Well, maybe Konoha just uses a different term for people like us…"

"What d'you mean 'people like us' anyway, Yugito-san?" Naruto asked, quite curious to find out what the deal was with this jinchuriki business. Judging by their facial expressions TenTen and Lee were just as interested in the conversation as he was, though Gai seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack.

"Oh, right, you wouldn't know about me, would you?" Yugito said, shooting the boy another smile. Placing a hand over her chest, Yugito said quite calmly. "I have the Two-Tailed Cat sealed inside of me."

"Wow! Really? That's so cool!" Naruto shouted. Recalling one of the bits of history he learned at the Ninja Academy, Naruto asked. "Hey … is that Two-Tailed Cat anything like the Nine-Tailed Fox?"

"They're quite similar." Yugito answered. _Looks like he understands now…_

"Yeah, I kinda thought they might be." Naruto said, nodding vigorously to show his comprehension. "Still … what does any of that have to do with what we've got in common?"

"I thought I explained that already." Yugito replied, mildly annoyed that the boy still didn't seem to understand.. "Two-Tailed Cat," She pointed to herself. "Nine Tailed Fox." She pointed at Naruto.

"Huh?" Naruto said, a stupefied expression on his face; his confusion only increased when TenTen gave a sudden, horrified gasp of comprehension.

"You …" Yugito's eyes widened in shock. "You don't know, do you?" Turning a furious glare on Gai, the Kumo kunoichi let out a furious shout. "What the hell are you thinking, not telling Naruto he's a jinchuriki? Do you have any idea what sort of things can happen to a jinchuriki who isn't properly trained to handle their tailed beast? How can you seal the Nine-Tailed Fox inside of this kid and not even tell him about it?"

"It was the Hokage's decision." Gai said stiffly. _If it had been up to me I would have told Naruto as soon as he joined my team, he deserved to know the truth_. "He thought it would be best for Naruto to have a relatively normal childhood."

"Wait … are you saying that I've got the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed inside of me?" Naruto interrupted. "But … I thought the Fourth Hokage killed it!" The boy paused in thought as several things suddenly fell into place. "Hey … wait a minute … If I've got the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed inside of me that must be why pretty much everyone in Konoha hates me and I've got no friends except for Bushy Brows and TenTen-chan!"

Gai winced at Naruto's blunt honesty, while Yugito turned a nasty glare on him and declared in a voice thick with scornful sarcasm. "Remind me to congratulate the Hokage on the success of his plan to give Naruto a happy childhood." The woman took a deep breath, and then continued in a slightly calmer tone. "Right, I'm going to go back to my room and have nice warm glass of milk so I can calm down before I go on a killing spree. Gai-san, I imagine you have quite a few things to discuss with your genin. Naruto-kun, please come speak with me at some point before you leave, there are facts that you need to be made aware of," Turning a disdainful glare on Gai, the woman added. "And it's obvious that Konoha is not up to the task." With that, the Kumo jonin brushed past Gai to return to her room, her posture still stiff with repressed anger.

Naruto turned to his sensei, confusion clear on his face. "Um … what the hell's going on here Gai-sensei? Do I really have the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed inside of me?"

"Yes, yes you do, Naruto." Gai answered solemnly. "When the Fox attacked Konoha eleven years ago the Fourth Hokage wasn't able to kill it; the only way to stop it was to seal Fox into a newborn child. You."

"Oh." Naruto said softly. "So … so what does that mean? Does that mean that I'm really a demon, not just … you know … me?"

Gai quickly shook his head. "You are not the Nine-Tailed Fox, Naruto." The boy's sensei said emphatically. "The Fox was sealed inside of you, but you are still yourself."

"So … I'm not gonna turn into some sort of demon one day, right?" Naruto asked. "The Fox couldn't, like, try to break out or take over my body or something … right?"

Gai's failure to confirm Naruto's hopes was an answer in its own way, and finally the man reluctantly said. "I will not lie to you, Naruto. While the Nine-Tailed Fox cannot simply take over your body or break out, it is entirely possible that it could cause a number of unpleasant effects. Some jinchuriki go dangerously insane because of their burdens, driven to the point of letting their demons control them. That is part of the reason many people fear jinchuriki" The man forced a smile onto his face as he added. "However, between the Fourth Hokage's seal and your own great strength of character I believe you should be quite safe from such risks."

"But you don't know that for sure." Naruto said softly.

Gai's expression hardened and he met the boy's eyes. "Naruto, you are an exemplary ninja and one of my excellent students, I refuse to believe that the Nine-Tailed Fox is capable of forcing you to act against your will."

"But you can't be sure!" Naruto insisted. "What if something happens?"

"It won't." Gai said firmly. "That's a promise." With a smile, the man continued. "Besides, if the Fox was able to have any sort of influence on you it would have shown up a long time ago and you would have been aware of it; at this point I think we can say that the Fox is safely sealed away where it can't do you or anybody else any harm."

"So … I'm just like anybody else?" Naruto asked.

"Mostly." Gai confirmed. "Your huge chakra reserves and how quickly you heal when injured are both common jinchuriki traits, and as you might have noticed you have a few slightly fox-like facial features," Gai indicated the whisker-marks on Naruto's cheeks and his slightly enlarged canines. "But aside from those things I have no reason to believe you're not a perfectly ordinary ninja."

"Alright then." Naruto said, nodding slowly. "Maybe … maybe this isn't all so bad then. I mean, it still sucks that so many people in the village hate me just for having the Fox sealed inside of me, but if it's not like the Fox's ever gonna actually do anything to me and I get more chakra and heal fast just because it's there, and since I'm keeping it there the Fox isn't going around hurting people … I mean, it's not great, but I guess the thing could suck a lot worse than it does right now."

"Yes." Gai said, his usual enthusiasm gradually returning. "Yes indeed! Well done Naruto! Even in the face of pain and adversity, you refuse to let your fires of youthful righteousness dim! That's why I'm proud to call you one of my beautiful young students!"

"Yes!" Lee cried out, caught up in his sensei's enthusiasm and eager to show solidarity with his friend. "Naruto's youthful strength is so great that not even the Nine-Tailed Fox is capable of breaking him!"

"Thanks guys!" Naruto said, regarding his sensei and teammate with a grin. In their own eccentric way Gai and Lee had told Naruto something he badly needed to hear; that knowing he had the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed inside of him didn't make the slightest bit of difference to them. Nothing had changed. Gai was still his crazy sensei, and Lee was still his equally crazy friend.

However, Naruto had yet to hear anything from his best friend. "Um … TenTen-chan?" The boy asked nervously, noting that TenTen's back was to him and her shoulders were trembling. "Um … what d'you think about … y'know … all this?"

"I …" TenTen began uncertainly. "It's … I don't know, it's just all so … what do you say when you find out something like this?" TenTen asked shakily. "I mean, five minutes ago you were just my crazy hyper knucklehead friend Naruto, but now … you're … you … this is all just so crazy!" The girl gave a laugh tinged with the slightest bit of hysteria.

"TenTen-chan … are you alright?" Naruto asked worried about his friend.

"I ... yeah, I'm fine, Naruto." The girl said, though the shakiness in her voice made the words seem a lie. "I just … I need a bit of time to think about all of this. I mean … you've got a demon sealed inside of you! And … I know I shouldn't care and you're still the exact same person you were five minutes ago and you're still my best friend but … but it's still … it's big." The girl sighed. "I'll be alright, I just … I just need a bit of space." The girl suddenly turned around and practically fled up the stairs to her room.

"TenTen-chan!" Naruto was about to follow her, really worried and hoping there was something he could do to help her, but Gai's hand on his shoulder gently restrained the boy and halted his pursuit.

"She needs a bit of time to herself, Naruto." Gai told the boy. "Everything will be fine in the morning. Now, why don't you go talk to Yugito-san? I expect she can tell you quite a bit more about being a jinchuriki than I could; after all I've only studied the topic since gaining you as a student, while she has been one her entire life." The man paused, and then added in a whisper meant only for Naruto's ears. "The Hokage also told me our intelligence indicates that Kumo's jinchuriki have better than usual control over their beasts; you might be able to gain a few very useful tips from her."

"Alright." Naruto replied, giving a quick nod of his head. _Yugito-san seemed like a nice enough lady, and the more I know about all this jinchuriki business the better off I am. Maybe by the time I'm done talking with her TenTen-chan will feel better too._

"Ah, Gai-san." The innkeeper called out. "Shall I have your meals sent up to your rooms? It would be a pity to let so much food go to waste after Yugito-san paid for it."

"Yes, that would be most excellent." Gai informed the man.

* * *

After taking a few minutes to rid himself of all the dirt he had accumulated during the last several days of traveling, Naruto took Gai's advice and went to see the Kumo jinchuriki. "Um … Yugito-san?" Naruto asked, knocking on the door to her room while shuffling his feet uncertainly. "It's me, Naruto Uzumaki. You said you wanted to talk to me?" _This is kinda weird, I've never been in some lady's room before._

"Ah, come in Naruto-kun. I've been waiting for you." Yugito's voice answered. Naruto opened the door, and was delighted to notice that the ramen already been delivered to Yugito's room, and somewhat relieved that Yugito was eating her own separate meal instead of stealing some of his ramen. The next few minutes passed in relative silence as the two ate their meals, until Yugito had finished eating and Naruto had consumed enough of the ramen to take the edge off of his appetite.

Yugito started the conversation with a grin. "When the innkeeper told me just how much ramen you could eat I thought he must be exaggerating, I see that was not the case." The woman gave a slight chuckle, and then added. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, Killer Bee has quite the appetite as well."

"Killer Bee?" Naruto asked.

"The jinchuriki for the Eight-Tailed Ox and one of my fellow Kumo ninjas." Yugito supplied. "He was responsible for overseeing quite a bit of my training. Perhaps you will have the pleasure of meeting him some day. If you do I expect it will be a … unique … experience."

A comfortable silence descended for a few moments before Yugito asked. "I don't suppose I could have a look at your seal, could I Naruto-kun? I'm no expert on the sealing arts, but I do have some knowledge of subject, particularly as it regards jinchuriki." The woman smiled at him and added. "I suppose it's only natural I would be curious about how jinchuriki seals work when I have one on me."

"Yeah, I guess that's alright." Naruto answered, before frowning in confusion. "Uh … how do I show you my seal anyways?"

"Take off your shirt and channel some chakra." Yugito answered. When the boy hesitated and gave a nervous blush Yugito let out a delighted laugh. "Relax, it's nothing I haven't seen before, and I promise my intentions are strictly honorable."

Naruto quickly followed the woman's instructions, and when his seal appeared he heard Yugito murmur something under her breath. "What is it?" Naruto asked. "There's nothing wrong with it, is there?"

"Not at all." Yugito assured him. "I was simply … impressed. It seems the Fourth Hokage's reputation is well deserved, this seal truly is a work of art." The woman gave a rueful smile and added. "I confess I feel just a bit of envy."

"Yeah, the Fourth Hokage was pretty awesome." Naruto said. "Say, that reminds me! I bet you didn't know that I'm gonna be the next Hokage! Er … well, I wanna be the next Hokage, but Gai-sensei says it's not gonna happen without lots and lots of hard work…"

Yugito raised a single eyebrow in surprise. "You want to be the next Hokage?" _Curious, most jinchuriki don't have much interest in gaining political power. I just hope he wants it for the right reasons … we don't need another blood-crazed jinchuriki Kage like the Fourth Mizukage. Kiri still hasn't recovered from all the damage he's done._

"Yeah." Naruto said eagerly, hardly needing further prompting to talk about the ultimate goal of his ninja career. "At first, I really just wanted to make people stop ignoring me and treating me like crap, but now…" Naruto trailed off as Yugito raised a hand to indicate the boy should halt his speech.

"Naruto-kun." Yugito asked gently. "How badly were you treated in Konoha?" She gave the boy friendly smile. "Please, speak freely and be honest."

"It wasn't that bad." Naruto assured her. "I mean, mostly it was just people ignoring me and kids not wanting to be my friends. Really, the worst thing I ever had to deal with was the senseis at the Ninja Academy giving me bad grades and not doing anything to help out."

"Nobody ever … hurt you, did they?" The woman demanded.

"Huh? Nah. Well, one or two bullies roughed me up a bit, but that wasn't really any worse than what happened to lots of other kids." Naruto paused, and then added. "Though none of the senseis or adults tries to stop them, but not all of them care about that sort of thing anyway; Mizuki-sensei always said that anybody weak enough to let themselves get bullied should just get tougher."

"I see." Yugito sighed. "I suppose that's something of a relief. Some jinchuriki are treated very poorly, even outright abused." _It never ceases to amaze me that some people are stupid enough to mistreat someone who will turn into a demonic killing machine if you break their self-control._

"How bad does it get?" Naruto asked uncertainly.

"The Hidden Sand Village has a jinchuriki who is about your age." Yugito answered. "The boy's own father has been trying to kill him ever since he turned six years old."

"Wow." Naruto said solemnly. "Suddenly being ignored by the senseis at the Academy doesn't seem like anything worth complaining about."

Yugito sternly shook her head. "The fact that other jinchuriki are treated even more poorly than you are does not justify what Konoha has done to you." Yugito grimaced. "I have to say, not even telling you the truth of who and what you are is a particularly twisted thing to do. You don't have the slightest bit of training for how to deal with the Nine-Tailed Fox, or how to use its chakra."

"Well, I didn't even know I had it sealed in me half an hour ago, so they couldn't really train me." Naruto pointed out. "Besides, why would I wanna use the Fox's chakra? I mean, isn't it kinda … evil?"

"It's … considerably more complicated than that." Yugito answered. "Chakra itself is merely power, and what makes it good or evil is how you use it. However, when you're using a Tailed Beast's chakra there it comes with a risk that you might let the beast have too much control."

"So … the Fox could take over my body?" Naruto asked, a note of fear in his voice.

"Only if you allow it to." Yugito answered. "If you use more of a Tailed Beast's chakra than you can safely control then your seal allows a portion of the beast's consciousness to leak through into your mind; it's meant as a safety measure." Seeing Naruto's confused expression, Yugito continued. "Tailed Beasts are quite capable of controlling huge quantities of their own chakra, so allowing a bit of the beast's mind through the seal allows you to use it's chakra more easily. Normally it isn't a serious problem since most jinchuriki have enough training to know what their limits are."

"And … what happens if you use too much?" The boy inquired, wishing he had thought to bring writing materials so he could take some notes on everything she was saying. He was pretty sure he understood all of the important bits, but it would be nice if he had notes to go over with TenTen just to make sure he didn't forget or misunderstand something really important.

"Well, if I exceed my limits I grow slightly more … animalistic, but I'm still fully in control." Yugito responded. "However, the further you push past your limits, the more influence your beast gains. I can use a chakra cloak while only becoming a bit more savage, but if I go to version two things get quite a bit worse, and when I try a full transformation I can barely even distinguish friend from foe."

"So … how much control am I gonna have over the Nine-Tailed Fox?" Naruto asked. _Chakra cloaks? Version Two? Full transformation? I hope I can remember all this stuff she's telling me; this is exactly the sort of info Gai-sensei wanted me to get._

Yugito shrugged. "It depends on how well you're trained, how good your seal is, and how strong your own willpower is. Killer Bee has full control, even when he transforms into the Eight-Tailed Ox, while other jinchuriki have been so badly weakened that they're constantly under their beast's influence, even if they're only channeling a tiny bit of chakra unconsciously. You probably have an edge there; with the quality of your seal I imagine you could channel basic amounts of the Fox's chakra without a serious loss of control even though you haven't had a bit of training."

"So … you know lots about controlled Tailed Beast chakra, right Yugito-san?" Naruto asked. Upon getting a nod in confirmation, Naruto made his request. "So … could you give me some tips for how to use the Fox's chakra?"

"I could…" Yugito said. "But you would have to do something for me first."

"What's that?" Naruto asked, suddenly wary.

"Come back to Kumo with me." Yugito replied.

"I … what?" Naruto's jaw dropped in astonishment. "You mean, like … on a training trip or something, right?"

Yugito smiled at the boy once more. "Not exactly. Naruto-kun … the treatment you have received at the hands of Konoha is nothing less than barbaric. In Kumo jichuriki are honored and respect for the sacrifices we have made for our villages. The Raikage himself is Killer Bee's brother, and he would never allow a jinchuriki living in his realm to be mistreated or shown anything less than the respect we deserve."

"You … don't want me to go on a training trip with you." Naruto realized. "You want me to defect from Konoha to Kumo!"

"Why shouldn't you?" Yugito asked. "The people of Konoha have derided you, ignored you, mocked you, and lied to you since the day you were born. That village doesn't deserve your loyalty. Why not move to a better village? One that will treat you with the respect that you deserve. You wouldn't have to become a Kage just to make people acknowledge your existence in Kumo."

"But … but Konoha's my home." Naruto objected.

"And Kumo could be a far better home to you than Konoha ever was." Yugito countered. "Consider my offer Naruto-kun. There are many dangers in the world, and only in Kumo can you receive the training you will need to fight them. How do you think the people of Konoha would react if your life was in danger? Would they fight alongside you, put their lives on the line to protect you? Or would they just stand aside and let you die, if they didn't help your enemies finish you off?"

Naruto gave no response, but his hung head and trembling shoulders encouraged Yugito to press her advantage. "Why do you want to become their Hokage? They don't deserve you! Konoha cares nothing for you! They will use you, and as soon as you have nothing more to offer them they will destroy you!"

"But … what about TenTen-chan and Gai-sensei and Bushy Brows?" Naruto asked. "They're not like that … they're my friends!"

"Kumo would welcome ninjas of their skill." Yugito answered smoothly. "If they are truly your friends they will stand beside you and support your decision to leave, and if they would rather serve the village that betrayed you than be at your side … well … then they're not really very good friends, are they?"

"I … I don't know…" Naruto said hesitantly.

"Think about it Naruto-kun." Yugito said earnestly. "In Kumo you could have everything you always wanted. The respect of your peers, the support of your superiors, the acknowledgement you've wanted and deserved for your entire life. In Konoha you have none of those things! Don't throw your life away in a desperate struggle to win the regard of a village that hates you! There's another village that's full of people just waiting for the opportunity to give you everything you want and deserve … just come with me and I can take you there." Yugito extended a hand to Naruto, waiting for him to take it and accept her invitation.

"I …" Naruto hesitated, his hand slowly inching towards Yugito's, "I can't." His hand dropped down, falling away from the kunoichi's."

"Don't be a fool, Naruto-kun!" Yugito hissed, her earlier friendly demeanor sliding away. "It's time to just give up on Konoha. Do you really think a village full of people who hate you would ever let you become the Hokage? No! They would see you dead before they let that happen! They might tolerate your presence for now, but as soon as you start doing too well and getting too strong they'll get scared, and soon after that they'll start trying to kill you. I've seen it before, and I don't want to see it again! If you don't come with me it will happen, it is inevitable. No matter how hard you try, nothing can change that."

"Maybe you're right." Naruto conceded, before his expression hardened in determination. "Then again, maybe you're not. Konoha is my home! I've already found friends there, and I've already found a sensei who has acknowledge my skill. They are my comrades, and I won't abandon them or force them to choose between loyalty to me and loyalty to Konoha. Even if nobody else in the village ever respects me or acknowledges my existence they do, and that's enough. And you know what else, even I don't ever get another friend and everyone still refuses to acknowledge me, I'm still gonna find a way to become the Hokage, because that's my dream, and I don't give up on my dreams!"

Yugito scoffed, contempt suddenly showing on her face. "I don't know whether that was inspiring or just pathetic. Look at you; the elders in Konoha have gotten you so twisted around their fingers that you believe all the crap they spout. You actually think if you try hard and act like a good little ninja they'll stop treating you like shit! Take a good look at the real world, Uzumaki! That's never going to happen, not in a million years! You could save their lives a dozen times over, and they still wouldn't give a fuck about you!" By the time Yugito got to the last sentence she was practically screaming in Naruto's face.

"You're wrong!" Naruto shouted back. "I'm not gonna give up on Konoha! It's my home! Gai-sensei and Bushy Brows and TenTen-chan have already acknowledged me, and soon other people will too! So screw you and all your talk about how only Kumo won't treat me like crap!" Naruto rose to his feet and talked towards the door, only to jump back in surprise when a shuriken shot past his face to embed itself in the door.

"I don't think you understand, Uzumaki." Yugito said tightly. "You will be coming back to Kumo with me. The only thing you have a choice is about is whether I take you back there the easy way," Yugito shifted into a taijutsu stance. "Or the hard way. If you're too blinded by Konoha's lies to realize that your place is in Kumo, then I'll make you see the truth!"

"You wanna fight me?" Naruto asked. "You've gotta stupid or something! As soon as we start fighting Gai-sensei and Bushy Brows and TenTen-chan will…"

"They'll do nothing!" Yugito cut the boy off. "You think I paid for their meal out of the kindness of my heart? That food was so heavily drugged they wouldn't wake up if I dropped the roof down on their heads and set them on fire!"

"Dammit" Naruto cursed under his breath. _I don't have a chance in hell of beating her without Gai-sensei and TenTen-chan and Bushy Brows helping; she's a jonin and she knows all about this jinchuriki stuff, and I'm just a genin._

Seeing the boy's worries, Yugito made one last effort at diplomacy. "You see, Naurto. There's no point in resisting. You can't win this fight. Why try to take me on when you know you have no hope of winning? Just come to Kumo with me freely, don't force me to hurt you. I never wanted to fight, but if that's what it takes to save you from the manipulations of Konoha, then I won't hesitate to use force."

_She's right, there's no way I'm gonna win a one-on-one fight with her_. Naruto's face suddenly broke out into a savage grin, and he quickly tossed several kunai at the woman. The jonin easily dodged the straightforward attack, but it bought Naruto the half-second he needed to cross the room and smash through the room's window. Breaking out into a quick run towards the woods on the Konoha side of the border village, Naruto's hands shifted into the seal for his newest jutsu. _Good thing I don't have to fight her one-on-one then!_

_So it's a chase, is it? This should be a fun little game, and a chance to see how good he really is._ Yugito lost no time in beginning her pursuit of Naruto, but paused in surprise when a burst of white smoke washed over the boy, and when it cleared there were a dozen Naruto's running towards the woods instead of just one. _Clones … that could be inconvenient, but I've got plenty of ways to deal with them_. "Raiton: Ball Lightning." Yugito gathered a small sphere of lightning chakra between her hands, then tossed it right into the middle of the clones. Upon striking the ground the concentrated ball of lightning dispersed into the air, striking all of the clones more of less simultaneously. Much to Yugito's surprise all of the Naruto copies disappeared.

_What the … but where's the real one?_ Yugito's eyes fell on the collection of sticks that lay in the middle of the area her jutsu struck. _So, he used a substitution then..._ The jonin quickly scanned the area, and soon caught sight of Naruto's distinctive orange jumpsuit within the trees, and within seconds she caught up with the boy once again. "It's going to take a lot more than a couple basic academy jutsu to beat me, Uzumaki!"

"How about an A-rank technique then?" Naruto shot back, before creating a small army of shadow clones.

Yugito's eyes widened in surprise, and she took a moment to look around at the sheer mass of clones the boy had created. _There have to be at least a hundred of them … maybe closer to two hundred. There's no way I'll be able to keep track of the original with that many copies running around. _"Not bad." Yugito conceded. "But not nearly good enough." Her hands began flickering through the seals for another Ball Lightning Jutsu, but the clones quickly scattered through the woods and by the time the jutsu was ready there were no good targets left. _Dammit, I should've picked a jutsu that doesn't need a second to charge up. Finding the real one with all these clones running around is going to be a real pain in the – whoa!_

Yugito ducked at the last second, barely avoiding a fist to face when one of the Naruto clones came out of nowhere and took a swing at her. _Shit! These aren't just illusions, they're solid clones! Plus, there's no way I'll be able to hear one clone sneaking up on me when I've got more than a hundred of them crashing around through the woods. _A quick jab to the throat dispersed the clone that attacked her, but there were still many more left.

It didn't take Yugito long to discover that the terrain Naruto chose for their battle left her with yet another disadvantage. _The best way to deal with this many clones would be a nice wide area jutsu, but with this many trees around there's nothing that would work. Lightning jutsu almost all need line-of-sight to work, and all these trees would block and disperse any big lightning attacks anyway. Naruto might not be able to beat me, but at this rate I won't be able to capture him any time soon._

Time was definitely an issue when it came to capturing Naruto. She might have put a bold face on for Naruto, but there was simply no way to be certain that the rest of his teammates would not eventually become a problem for her. One of them might not have been feeling hungry when the innkeeper delivered the drugged food, or one of them might have an unusual metabolism, or Gai might make a habit of taking measures to counter common sleep agents. Yugito was not particularly skilled when it came the drugs and poisons and she could have easily messed up the dosage, or the wrong food could have been delivered to their rooms. Even if all of Naruto's teammates were gone, the border between the Fire Country and Lightning Country saw frequent patrols by Konoha ninjas due to the tensions between the two countries. The sooner she had Uzumaki down, the less chance there was that things could go wrong.

_This would have been so much easier if the stubborn fool had just cooperated and accepted my offer like he was supposed to._ Yugito hissed as another clone burst out of the woods to attack her, but she easily dodged past several thrown shuriken before dispersing the clone simple flick of her wrist that put a kunai into its leg. _Dammit, all my senses are being screwed up here. I can't track him by sound when there's so many running around, and my eyes are having the same problem._ Yugito could easily spot a dozen orange-clad figures moving about through the forest, but tracking any single one required quite a bit of concentration, and would leave her dangerously open to attacks from another direction.

A dozen clones suddenly came at her, each one moving in from a different direction, and none of them leaving Yugito with much time to react. _The real one almost certainly isn't there so I don't need to hold back, and there is a certain irony in using this jutsu on him_. "Katon: Foxfire." A blast of bright blue flame shot out from Yugito's body, searing all the clones and instantly dispersing them. _I need to be careful though; fire jutsus are the worst choice for incapacitating an opponent non-lethally. My mission is to bring him back to Kumo more-or-less in one piece, not roast him. Taking him down when I can barely use my best element does add a bit of a challenge to things._

Yugito grimaced and began to formulate a strategy. _I can't keep trying to fight him in the middle of a forest; I'm not used to working in terrain like this, but he's been living among the trees for his entire life. On top of that his clones are really letting him take advantage of the terrain, while most of my best non-lethal jutsu need line-of-sight and would be dispersed if they hit a tree. I need to change the dynamics of this situation … but how? I'm chasing him, so he has control over where we'll fight; if I tried to shift the fight to open ground there's no reason he wouldn't just stay right here in the woods. Time's on his side after all, he can afford to just play the waiting game until his teammates wake up or a border patrol squad sees what's going on and jumps in. I could probably either one of those if I had to, but it would give Uzumaki plenty of time to make a getaway, and the Raikage made it very clear he didn't want this mission ending with a bunch of dead Konoha ninjas; we don't need more trouble with them right now._

Yugito's eyes passed over one of the many tiny fires her previous jutsu had ignited, and the solution came to her with a flash of clarity. _Not exactly discreet, but it should work well enough for my purposes. If your quarry is trying to go to ground, the best solution is to leave them with nowhere to hide_. "Katon: Scorched Earth." A massive burst of dark red fire erupted from Yugito's hands, spreading out to cover dozens of trees. The flames themselves were not particularly hot; a direct hit on Naruto would not cause anything worse than a nasty sunburn, but the fires Yugito began soon took on a life of their own and spread rapidly through the trees. _Most fire jutsu are too intense to cause secondary fires; they consume any natural fuel in the area before the chakra powering them runs out. With the scorched earth jutsu though … soon there won't be any woods left for Uzumaki to hide in._

* * *

TenTen sighed, looking listlessly out the window of her room. As wonderful as the food the innkeeper had delivered to her smelled, she found that just didn't have much of an appetite at the moment; she was too busy worrying about Naruto to eat.

_I shouldn't have just walked away from him like that. I mean, sure, Naruto having the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed inside of him is a lot to take in, especially when I found out about it all so suddenly, but that's no excuse. Naruto is my friend! Even if I'm a little scared and worried about the fact that he's got a demon sealed into his body he is still my best friend, and nothing's happened to change that. I should … I should…_ TenTen's hands curled into fists, and the girl spoke aloud. "I should find Naruto and talk to him instead of wasting time sitting around in my room pining!" Her mind made up, TenTen set off to find her friend.

Her first stop was Naruto's room, but there was no answer after she'd pounded on his door and called out his name several times. Picking the cheap lock on an inn door was child's play for a skilled kunoichi, but when she made her way into Naruto's room she discovered that her friend wasn't there. _Where could he be? Oh right, Yugito-san wanted to talk to him, he must still be there_. The girl quickly made her way to Yugito's room, but once more there was no answer when she knocked. However, this time when she picked the lock she found a kunai stuck into the door when she opened it, and noticed that the room's window had been broken. _What the hell happened!_ "Naruto!" TenTen shouted, sticking her head out the shattered window and desperately searching for her friend. _What happened here? An attack? Whoever it was, if they got Naruto and Yugito-san they must have been good … I can't go running off by myself, I need Gai-sensei and Lee to help me look for him!_

This time TenTen didn't even bother with knocking on the door, but just kicked it open while shouting. "Gai-sensei! Lee! Naruto's in trouble!" TenTen frowned when she saw that her two remaining teammates were sound asleep despite her noisy entrance; judging from the way his face was resting on his plate Lee had actually drifted off in the middle of eating his meal. "Jeez." TenTen scoffed, before grabbing the boy by his shoulders and shaking him vigorously. "Lee! Wake up you fool! Naruto's in trouble!" When that produced no results she tried the same process with Gai, and had no more success.

"What's going on here?" TenTen said, frowning in confusion. She dumped a glass of water over Lee's head, and then tried slapping him a couple times, but the boy still refused to wake. "Nobody should be able to sleep through all of this…" TenTen's eyes shot down to the food Lee had fallen asleep while eating, her mind racing as she put the facts together. _Lee wouldn't just fall asleep in the middle of eating like that, he eats almost as fast as Naruto. The food must have been drugged, if I had eaten any of the food I'd been given then I'd be in the same state they're in. But why would the innkeeper drug us? _TenTen's eyes narrowed in anger as she realized that far more likely suspect had gone to the trouble of arranging their meal. _No. Not the innkeeper. Yugito_. _Which means that Naruto's up against a jonin all by himself. He's outmatched, he needs help._

TenTen quickly dug into her pack and pulled out a handful of ration pills, forcing Lee and Gai to swallow several of them. It wouldn't be a perfect solution, but the stimulants contained in the ration pills ought to at least partially counteract whatever drugs had been in their food. TenTen glanced out the window once more, noticing a thick curl of smoke coming up from the forest outside the village. _That's probably not a coincidence._

The smart thing to do would be to wait for the rest of her teammates. Ration pills had an almost immediate effect, and within a few minutes Gai and Lee should be conscious again and, while not at full strength, still in good enough condition to fight by her side. Waiting for them was the sensible decision to make, tactically speaking.

TenTen didn't give a damn what the smart thing to do was, Naruto needed her help. She barely even spared the time needed to open the window before she jumped out of it, rushing at full speed to help her friend. _Hang on Naruto, I'm on my way!_

* * *

**A/N**: Bumped up the rating just to be safe after writing this chapter; I'm not sure where exactly you should draw the line between T and M and when it comes to swearing and bloody violence, but with the direction things have been going so far and will be going in the future it's better safe than sorry.

**Reviewer Responses**:

**geetac, Celtic Reaper, gwe123, marc, DBZLOVER:**: Glad you're enjoying the story so much, that's part of why I'm writing it after all! I hope this chapter is as good as the last ones have been.

**daniel 29:** Naruto has always struck me as the type of person who thinks that different is awesome and fascinating rather than bad. As for pink spandex, I'm quite certain he'd never actually wear it, but he'd still probably be happy about the fact that it was given to him as a gift and acknowledgement of his ability.

**Chooocolate:** Neji won't be turning up again until the Chunin Exams, and once the story gets to that point he'll be about as important as he was in canon. The Naruto vs. Neji fight is probably one of my favorite ones in the series; you have to love the way Naruto proves that all of Neji's talk about fate and destiny is a bunch of bullshit.

**Lordamnesia:** I've always been surprised that there aren't more fics featuring Naruto on Team Gai. Gai is probably the jonin-sensei who is closest to Naruto in terms of personality, and Naruto's interacted with the members of team Gai a lot more than the other two teams (especially if one considers the anime filler episodes). Plus, getting him out of the ninja academy and giving him a full year of Gai's training before the canon timeline starts is a fairly simple and very plausible way to up Naruto's badass level for things like the Chunin Exams.


	5. Jinchuriki vs Jinchuriki

**Disclaimer: **If I owned Naruto we would have gotten to see an epic battle between Yugito, Hidan, and Kakuzu instead of having all of it except for the pre-battle banter happen off-screen.

* * *

_Hehe … I'm not doing too bad so far._ Naruto congratulated himself. Not only had he found a way to make his getaway from Yugito, he had also managed to force her into terrain where he had a natural advantage. Fire Country was pretty much covered with trees, while Lightning Country tended to have much more mountainous terrain, and he'd counted on that to give him an edge over the jonin in the fight. So far the plan had worked out quite well; several of his clones had gotten close to sucker-punching the jonin, and he'd managed to put a comfortable distance between Yugito and the real him. _Now to just use my clones to wear her down; I've got plenty left, and she's been having a rough time keeping track of them all. Sooner or later one'll get a good hit in, and then I'll just mob her. Looks like Kumo jonin must be pretty crappy compared to Konoha's._

That was when he noticed the fires. _Aw crap … looks like she found a way to screw up my plans. Makes a lot of sense; if I've got an edge on her when we're fighting in the forest she'll just get rid of all the trees. _From how quickly the fires were catching he didn't think just trying to ride them out was an option; the fire itself wasn't all that hard to avoid, but the air was already starting to grow thick with smoke and it would only get worse as more and more of the forest burned.

If he couldn't stay in the forest then he'd have to get out somehow, but he was pretty sure that was exactly what Yugito had in mind when she had started the fires. It was a safe bet that she was planning to ambush him as soon he moved out of the trees and into open ground, but the woods were large enough to give him plenty of options on where to exit. The river that marked the border between Fire Country and Lightning Country looped around the forest to surround it on three sides, and not crossing the river meant heading back towards the village.

_She's probably expecting me to go back to the village, the only other option would be to cross the border into Kumo, and that's a pretty risky move. 'Course, if there were any Kumo ninjas in the area they probably would've turned up when the fighting started, so it might not be that bad, and it's probably the last thing she'd expect me to do. Plus, the water'll keep me safe from all the fire, and she's a pretty big fire jutsu user too. Getting to the river's the smart move to make._

Naruto thought on the matter a little more. _Yeah, that's a good plan … now I know what I'm gonna do_.

* * *

Yugito let out a tight, satisfied smile when a small horde of Naruto clones burst out burst out of the rapidly burning woods and rushed towards the dubious safety of the village he had just left. _Good, I was little worried he might not make it out of there; if he'd waited much longer before making his move he might have gotten himself killed. Still, does he really think hiding in the middle of a bunch of clones is enough to stop me? _A heavily charged Ball Lightning jutsu slammed into the center of the mass of clones, dispersing the majority and scattering the survivors. _That was too easy … I see … so that was his plan._ Yugito grinned as she spotted a lone orange-clad figure desperately swimming across the river into Kumo. _The clones were supposed to distract me while the real one ran the other way. Sneaky, but you'll have to do better than that, Naruto-kun._

Yugito fed a bit of chakra into her legs and quickly rushed up to the river, but by the time she got there Naruto had almost made his way across. _One little fact you forgot, Naruto-kun … water is an excellent conductor of electricity!_ After going through the appropriate handseals, Yugito thrust her hands into the river and announced. "Raiton: Great Lightning Burst Jutsu." Lightning surged out of her hands and into the river; the sheer amount of electricity would have killed Naruto a dozen times over if it had hit him directly, but the river dispersed it enough that the boy would just be stunned for a while, exactly as the jonin planned. Dozens of fish floated to belly-up to the water's surface, while Naruto … disappeared in a puff of white smoke.

"What the-" Yugito's exclamation was cut off when a foot slammed into the back of her head, though she had the presence of mind to roll with the blow to reduce the damage it could have done. That left Yugito quite damp and standing knee-deep in the water, but it was better than the alternative.

"Gotcha, Kitty-chan." A slightly singed Naruto declared, a triumphant grin on his face as he mocked the jonin. "I figured if you saw one clone going one way while the rest went the other you'd figure the clone on it's own was the real me and the rest were distractions." Naruto's surviving clones began to rejoin him; the boy still had a bit more than a dozen left despite all the casualties they'd suffered.

"Not bad, Naruto-kun." Yugito congratulated her opponent. "But let me offer you a bit of advice; don't waste time and expose your position in order to showboat and brag when you should be focused on the fight!" Before the boy even had time to blink the jonin closed the distance between them and slammed kick into his chest, sending the boy skidding away from his clones. With Naruto a safe distance away, Yugito performed another Foxfire jutsu, blasting away the rest of the boy's clones.

Naruto didn't even have time to get back to his feet before Yugito was right on top of his position, and boy had to desperately roll into the mud along the river's bank to avoid catching a kick to the head. Making the best of a bad situation, Naruto scooped up a handful of the mud as he rolled to his feet, then made a deliberately overextended his leg attempt to sweep Yugito's feet out from under her. When the jonin moved to take advantage of the opening in Naruto's defenses, he quickly flicked his handful of mud into the jonin's eyes.

"Gyah!" The jonin took several steps back and swiped a sleeve across her face to clear the worst of the mud, but while she was distracted Naruto rushed forward and slammed a fist into the woman's stomach. However, right after Naruto's blow struck home Yugito's hands clamped around the boy's extended arm right, and before the boy could free himself from her grasp one of the jonin's elbows was flying towards his face. Her elbow slammed into his head and produced a sickening crackling sound as Naruto's nose broke, and soon blood was streaming down the boy's face.

With one of Naruto's arms still firmly under her control, Yugito quickly spun the arm about to trap it in an elbow lock that left both her hands free to perform another jutsu. "Raiton: Knockout Palm Strike." The fist on her free hand began sparkling with electricity, and with a triumphant grin the woman slammed her lightning-coated palm flat against the boy's chest, releasing his arm an instant before the blow struck to avoid being hit by her own jutsu. The electricity jumped from her hand to Naruto's chest and began arcing over the boy's body; Naruto dropped down into the mud, violently twitching from the jutsu's effects.

"You see, Naruto." The jonin explained, a pleased smirk on her face. "The human nervous system functions as a result of electrical impulses traveling down from your brain. Right now, all of those impulses have been disrupted; you don't have the slightest bit of control over your own body. Don't worry though, I've spent a lot of time making sure that only your voluntary muscle functions will be affected by the jutsu; I wouldn't want to accidentally shut off your heart or lungs after all, the point of this entire exercise is to capture you alive."

Naruto gasped weakly and tried to say something, but his voice was too quiet for Yugito to make out the words. "I'm impressed you can already speak," Yugito commented. "But I suppose having your lungs in full working order helps with that." Yugito leaned down, placing her head near Naruto's so she could make out his words. "So … what was it you were trying to say?"

"I said … I said …" Naruto's head snapped up and slammed into Yugito's, the boy's forehead met Yugito's with enough force to knock the jonin back, and the treacherous footing of the muddy river bank made her feet betray, causing her to fall on rear across from Naruto. "Let me offer you a bit of advice, Kitty-chan," Naruto said in a voice that was already beginning to regain it's old strength as he offered a mocking repetition of her earlier words. "Don't underestimate me!" Naruto shakily rose to his feet, already starting to recover from the worst of the jutsu's effects.

The jonin scoffed and easily rose to her feet. "You are one stubborn brat, you know that, Naruto-kun? Anyone else would have had the brains to realize they didn't have chance of winning this fight!" _How is he standing? That jutsu should have put him down and left him incapable of moving for several minutes! Even with all the perks that come with being an jichuriki he shouldn't be able to recover from a hit like that so quickly._

"You think you're the first person who's ever told me I didn't have any chance of winning!" Naruto shot back. "I've been hearing that kinda crap my entire life! Why should I believe it when it's coming from you when I never believed any of the other idiots spouting out bullshit like that! I'm not gonna lose to someone like you!"

"We'll see about that." Yugito rushed in once more, ducking under the weak punch Naruto threw in an effort to ward her off, then closed in and slipped one of her legs around the boy's to pin it in place. A simple shove to his shoulders overbalanced Naruto, as his trapped leg was unable to compensate for the sudden shift in his center of gravity and the boy tumbled to the ground. Yugito followed him down, slamming a knee with almost all her weight behind it into the boy's solar plexus. Naruto let out a gasp as the wind was knocked out of him, and with boy downed by the blow Yugito slapped another Knockout Palm Strike into his chest.

Rising up from the disabled boy, Yugito brushed the mud off her pants. "You've got guts Naruto-kun, I won't deny that, but you really need to learn when to stay down." Yugito quickly scanned the horizon, pleased to see that there was no sign of any trouble from Naruto's teammates or any inconvenient patrols of Konoha ninjas. However, taking here eyes off Naruto proved to be a dangerous mistake, and she barely managed to dodge the kunai the downed boy had somehow managed to throw at her.

Slowly, the boy once more staggered to his feet, trembling from the aftereffects of the second Knockout Palm Strike. "I'm not going down!" The boy growled, his face drawn in a determined snarl. "I don't care if you hit me as hard you can and knock me down a hundred times, I'll still get back up and kick your ass before this fight's done!"

"You never learn, do you?" Yugito shot forward and slammed a fist into Naruto's face, deliberately aiming for the boy's already broken nose. More fresh blood streamed down Naruto's face, but the boy remained standing despite the pain, and an upraised arm blocked her next punch. Then the boy countered and kicked the inside of Yugito's right knee, sending the unprepared woman staggering when her leg was suddenly no longer supporting her weight, and the off balance woman caught Naruto's left fist on her cheek, sending the woman spiraling face-first to the ground.

"You are really starting to piss me off, Uzumaki!" The Kumo jinchuriki growled, spitting out a mouthful of dirty river mud. Naruto was still far too shaky to take advantage of the downed woman, and Yugito easily returned to her feet to face her opponent once more. "Katon: Condensed Firestorm Jutsu!" Naruto barely managed to dodge the thick column of blue flame Yugito hurled at him by diving into the mud on the river's banks, and even though he avoided a direct hit he still suffered flash burns on the right side of his face from the near-miss. A cloud of steam washed over the boy as the fire jutsu flash-boiled much of the water in the immediate vicinity, causing a second wave of hot pain to wash over the boy's exposed skin.

_Jeez! That woulda killed me if it hit! This is getting bad!_ Naruto tried to rise from his position, only to find that the mud that had covered most of his body had thickened to the consistency of clay. "Wait … what the?"

"You didn't think you actually dodged that, did you?" Yugito asked, a mocking tone in her voice. "The heat from my fire jutsu baked all the mud around you into clay; if I wasn't worried about damaging you too much I could have upped the heat a bit more and hardened the clay, but why take such an unnecessary risk?" Yugito dropped down onto her haunches in front of the boy, and casually flicked his broken nose with a finger, causing the boy's eyes to tear up at the sudden pain. "Now, Naruto-kun." The woman said in a sickeningly sweet voice. "Why don't you just stay down before I have to get serious about this fight?"

Naruto grimaced as he tried to find some way to escape the prison of clay Yugito had created around him. Almost all of his left side was completely covered by the thick clay and barely capable of movement, especially with his muscles still weak and flaccid as a result of having been badly electrocuted twice in the last five minutes. _I think I might be outta luck this time … I've used up every trick I've got and I've barely even scratched her! Gotta be something else I can do!_

Forming the seals to use a jutsu was all but impossible with the thick clay covering his hands. _Well, not unless she lets me have five minutes to make all the seals for whatever jutsu I wanna use_. _I could go for shadow clones since those only need one seal, but she's got lots of jutsu that're good for killing them, and as long as I'm stuck in the mud like this it's not like she'd have any trouble finding the real me. Wait … that could work!_

The boy performed a quick transformation jutsu, and suddenly Gai's much larger form replaced Naruto's scrawny body. Half a second later Naruto reverted to his normal self, but as a result of the size change his clay prison was loose enough to allow Naruto to perform a substitution jutsu to free himself. After shaking his limbs to remove the largest of chunks of clay clinging to them, Naruto turned to face Yugito, his fighting stance weak but determined.

"Of all the enemies I've ever faced." Yugito snarled. "You are by far the most annoying. Why do you persist? It's maddening!" Her hands snapped through the signs for another Knockout Palm Strike, with a quick modification to leave both her hands charged with lightning chakra. "Why!" She slammed a strike into the boy's chest. "Won't!" Another palm-delivered blast of lightning, this time into his gut. "You! A strike to the left cheek. "Stay!" The right cheek. "Down!" Both palms slammed into the boy's chest, directly over his heart.

Naruto staggered back several steps and dropped to the ground, convulsing wildly from the sheer amount of electricity coursing through his body. When his wild gyrations finally ceased the boy let out a desperate gasp, coughing up blood as he was barely able to force his battered body to draw air and his wearied heart to continue beating. The boy continued breathing shakily, but he remained still aside from continuing twitches from lingering electricity, and it seemed like Yugito's attack had finally knocked the boy out.

Yugito took several deep breaths as the adrenaline rage that fueled her attack slowly dissipated. _Shit, I really overdid that. Knockout Palm isn't supposed to be a lethal technique, but hitting him with it six times in a row can screw that up pretty badly. I'm lucky he survived that; the Raikage would be furious with me if I killed Uzumki when I'm supposed to be bringing him back to Kumo alive and relatively intact._

Yugito slowly approached the boy with the intention of checking that she hadn't done too much damage. Her over-the-top attack seemed to have finally finished off the ridiculously stubborn Konoha jinchuriki, but even if he was alive and breathing normally it was prudent to make sure he wouldn't suddenly keel over dead halfway to Kumo. _Seems like he's alright, and since he's a jinchuriki he shouldn't be in any serious danger; he probably heals injuries even faster than Killer Bee. He's a stubborn brat, but once he's on our side that'll help make him a valuable asset to Kumo._

Any further reflection on the boy came to an abrupt end as Yugito was forced to jump away from the boy before eight kunai passed through the space her vitals had occupied half a second earlier. A pink and green clad blur shot past the Kumo jonin, and then TenTen stood between the jonin and Naruto, crouched over the downed boy protectively. Her face incandescent with rage, the girl snarled at Yugito. "Get the hell away from him, you bitch!"

"Hello TenTen-chan." Yugito said genially, a pleasant smile on her face. "From the fact that you're still conscious I assume you didn't eat any of the food I had prepared for your team." Yugito adopted a pouting expression. "And after I went to so much trouble to pay for and drug all of it especially for you!"

TenTen pulled out and opened a scroll, and passed her hands over it, one after the other, putting eight shuriken in her hands. The girl didn't say a word, but the burning hatred that filled her face was statement enough.

"So … not the type for pre-battle banter I see." Yugito quipped. "Pity. Alright then, how about I just kill you right away?" _If she's up then I have to assume Gai won't be far behind. I don't have time to hold back like I did with Naruto, but the Raikage did tell me to avoid killing unless I had no other choice; no reason to make Konoha any more furious with us than absolutely necessary. In any case, as long as she's between me and Naruto I have to be careful about my jutsu or I'll hit him too, and after how much damage I did to put him down I don't think he can take much more._

TenTen unleashed a barrage of shuriken, then quickly reloaded with her sealing scroll and struck again, and continued to repeat the process in order to keep a near-continuous stream of weapons flying at Yugito. _I don't have any good jutsu for deflecting this many weapons, and from this angle any counter-attack would hit Naruto too, and I really don't have time to play with this girl … time to cheat then._

For a brief moment an aura of blue-black chakra surrounded Yugito, and then the Kumo jonin simply was gone, moving smoothly around TenTen's stream of ranged weapon to close in and slam a fist into the girl's face. The force of the blow sent TenTen flying, and the girl finally stopped sliding through the mud some distance away from the boy she had been protecting.

_That was faster than Gai-sensei!_ TenTen groaned, picking herself up off the ground and eyeing her opponent warily. _Huh … her eyes look normal now, but when she was coming at I could have sworn they were slit like a … cat's. She has the Two-Tailed Cat sealed in her, and then she gets cat eyes for a couple seconds … she must have been using the cat's power to increase her speed. Great, not only am I up against a jonin, I'm up against a super-powered demon jonin._

Yugito shot the girl a grin devoid of the slightest hint of warmth. "Now do you begin to understand just how big of a gap there is between us? You're just another genin, nothing special really, but me … I'm a jonin and a jinchuriki. You don't have a prayer of beating me, so why don't you just turn around and walk away right now?"

"Fuck that." TenTen snarled. "You hurt Naruto. You're dead."

"Temper, temper, girl." Yugito chided. "Surely your Etiquette and Civilian Customs instructor told you that kunoichi aren't supposed to use coarse language like that."

"Etiquette and Civilian Customs was my worst class." TenTen answered, a tight smile on her face. "I never really saw the point of it. I'm a kunoichi; why would I want to know how to pretend to that I was some worthless shirking violet of a housewife who can't take care of herself?"

_I like this one's attitude._ "So, you're out for my blood now that I've hurt your little boyfriend, is that it?" Yugito sneered.

"Naruto's not my boyfriend." TenTen shot back. "Boyfriends are stupid boys you have a crush on for a couple months, and then forget about when someone new and cooler shows up. What Naruto and I have isn't something shallow and meaningless like that."

"Good for you." Yugito hissed condescendingly. "But as delightful as this conversation is, you must realize you signed your death warrant when you got in the way of my mission."

"I'm not afraid of you." TenTen replied, her eyes narrowed in a glare at the Kumo jinchuriki. "I'm not afraid to risk death fighting you. Because I know, if our positions were reversed, nothing short of his own death would stop Naruto from ripping your heart out."

Yugito gave a derisive snort of laughter. "Nice little speech, but I think I've wasted enough time playing with my food." The Cat's chakra flared around the jonin again, and before TenTen had time to react Yugito was within striking distance and had finished the last seal for her jutsu. One Knockout Palm Strike later, TenTen was down on the ground convulsing just like Naruto had been when he got hit by the jutsu.

Yugito turned her back on the fallen girl and returned her attention to Naruto. _At least this time I won't have worry about the jinchurikik healing factor letting her shake of hits that ought to put her dow … okay … OW!_ Yugito eyed the kunai that had somehow implanted itself into the back of her leg, then turned about to regard TenTen incredulously. "Nice throw." The jonin congratulated with a pained growl, before yanking the weapon out. Normally removing a weapon like that was unwise since it would make the wound and lead to increased blood loss, but the edges of Yugito's wound were already starting to knit back together thanks to the power of the Two-Tailed Cat. _Fast healing really is quite useful._

"Not really." TenTen supplied, trembling from the after-effects of Yugito's jutsu. "I was aiming for your head."

"Muscle spasms do tend to make precise aim a little more difficult." Yugito supplied cheerfully. _Note to self: once this mission's over I need to work on improving the Knockout Palm strike; the people I hit with it seem to have a distressing tendency to not actually be knocked out._ "So, tell me something TenTen-chan; are all Konoha ninjas so ridiculously stubborn? At first I thought it was just Naruto, but now it looks like you're getting in on the act too."

The dozen kunai TenTen sent in response answered Yugito's question well enough, and soon the girl was unleashing another stream of thrown weapons. With the power of the Two-Tailed Cat coursing through her Yugito had no trouble dodging the barrage of kunai and shuriken that TenTen sent in her direction. The girl was obviously still suffering from being hit by a Knockout Palm, as several of the kunai struck the ground instead of coming anywhere close to hitting Yugito, but most of the attacks were still quite well-aimed.

"Not bad, especially after the hits you've taken." Yugito said. "But not nearly good enough. You think you can beat someone on my level just by tossing out a bunch of pointy bits of metal?"

"Not at all." TenTen replied glibly. "That's why I tossed a dozen kunai with explosive tags wrapped around the handles into the ground, and then made sure to aim the rest of my weapons so that when you dodged them you'd end up standing right on top of the bombs."

"Clever girl." Yugito declared with a pleased grin, right before the tags detonated with an earth-shaking explosion. Mud and dirt went flying all over the battlefield, and the force of the detonation was enough to knock TenTen off her feet. When the smoke began to clear the girl saw that her bombs had produced a muddy crater that was rapidly filling with water..

Just when TenTen thought she'd finally managed to take the jonin down, possibly even kill her, she saw an aura of flickering blue-black chakra flames, and then a virtually unscathed Yugito casually strode out of the wreckage and destruction as though she hadn't just been in the middle of a dozen explosive tags. _I've never seen somebody surrounded by that much chakra before! And … are those ears? And a tail? That can't be good._

"If I'd been a normal jonin that might have actually hurt me." Yugito declared conversationally, before shooting the girl a smirk. "Unfortunately for you, I'm anything but normal." _Sure, I could have just dodged the explosion instead of using a chakra cloak to shrug most of it off and heal the bits of damage I did take, but I think its past time I impressed upon this girl just how badly outmatched she really is._

TenTen only thought Yugito had been fast before, now with her strange chakra cloak the woman was moving so quickly TenTen could barely even see her. Defense was completely impossible, and the blow that struck her in the chest felt more like a blow from a particularly massive sledgehammer than a fist. When TenTen hit the ground her entire chest clenched in agonizing pain, and every breath the girl took sent fresh waves of white-hot agony lancing through her body. _Crap … I'm pretty sure that broke some ribs._

"You should thank me for pulling that punch." Yugito said smugly as the chakra cloak that had surrounded her began to disperse. "One time I saw Killer Bee blow a man's entire chest apart with a hit like that. Don't worry, I'm sure a good medical ninja will be able to put your ribs back together."

TenTen slowly staggered to her feet, biting back the cries of pain she desperately wanted to unleash, and slowly drew out a single kunai. With weak, staggering steps, the girl slowly moved to place herself between the Kumo jinchuriki and Naruto once more.

"You have to be joking." Yugito scoffed. "Look at you, you can barely even stand. You gave me a hell of a fight and I'm sure your sensei will be proud of you, but it's over! Do you really want to die that badly?"

"The only way you'll get to Naruto," The girl gasped out, the words thick with suppressed pain. "Is over my dead body."

Yugito looked the girl over, then gave a resigned sigh. "If you insist." The jonin closed in on TenTen, and with contemptuous ease batted the kunai out of her hands. The girl snapped a desperate punch at Yugito, but the jinchuriki casually dodged the attack, then captured the girl's arm in a lock. A little pressure was more than enough to keep TenTen's arm pinned, and when Yugito increased the pressure the bones of the girl's arm began to crack, and then with a sickening crunch gave way completely. TenTen let out a piercing scream that choked off into a series of pained gasps as when the pain of her broken ribs reasserted itself.

Yugito released the girl, who collapsed to the ground, cradling her shattered arm as pain wracked her body. "Stupid girl. If you hadn't forced my hand I wouldn't have been compelled to use such extreme measures to take you out. And over such a pointless gesture too; you never had a chance of beating me or stopping me from taking Naruto. Besides, there was no reason to even fight me in the first place; Naruto will be better off in Kumo than he ever would have been in Konoha."

* * *

_Is … is that TenTen-chan?_ Naruto's mind was bleary and confused, and the boy was reasonably certain he'd been knocked out for a while because the last thing he remembered was Yugito beating the crap out of him, and now it looked like TenTen and Yugito had been fighting for a while. The boy tried to call out to her or rejoin the battle, but his muscles simply refused to respond to the boy's commands. _Dammit! TenTen-chan needs my help and I can't even freaking move!_

For a second, Naruto felt a surge of hope when there was a massive explosion right on top of Yugito. _Take that Kitty-chan! Looks like TenTen-chan didn't need my help after all, I knew she was freaking awesome!_ Naruto's hope quickly turned to despair when it became clear that Yugito had survived TenTen's assault, and then the Kumo jinchuriki proceeded to land a bone-shattering blow on Naruto's friend.

_No! TenTen-chan! Dammit, I've gotta do something!_ The boy desperately tried to help rise and go his friend's defense, but his battered body simply refused to respond no matter how hard he tried. The boy watched in helpless rage as TenTen fell to the ground in obvious agony, but still the girl refused to give up, forcing herself to stand protectively beside her wounded friend. Then Yugito broke her arm, finally wrenching a cry of agony from the girl that tore into Naruto's heart.

_No! Why can't I do anything? Why am I so weak? Why can't I find some way to save her?_ Helpless rage welled up in the boy's heart, mixed with burning hatred for the woman responsible for TenTen's injuries. He would do anything, give up anything, just to have the power to save his friend and punish Yugito, to make her pay for daring to lay a hand on TenTen.

_Hey … where's that laughing sound coming from?_ Before Naruto had time to ponder that question, his body was flooded with new strength, and a bright orange aura flared to life around him. His rage doubled and redoubled, and all the boy could think of was how badly he wanted to hurt the Kumo jinchuriki. "I'll kill you!" The boy roared, leaping to his feet and rushing towards the object of his hate.

Yugito's eyes snapped up to the boy and widened in surprise, but before she could dodge his punch struck home, slamming into her chest and sending the Kumo jonin flying away; the woman finally came to a rest quite a ways away from the boy after several rather painful-sounding bounces along the ground. An instant later the Kumo jinchuriki was on her feet again and enveloped in her own aura of blue black chakra, aside from the color a perfect match to Naruto's own.

"Looks like I was right about that seal, you can use the Fox's chakra without any training." Yugito declared, her face drawn in a predatory smile. Despite her outward confidence, in the safety of her mind, the Kumo jinchuriki was in a panic. _Shit! Stupid, stupid, stupid! I knew that going after one of his friends might piss him off enough to make him use the Nine-Tailed Fox's power, but I was so sure he wouldn't regain consciousness for hours! Dammit! Taking him down without going too far and killing him is going to be a lot harder now; pulling your punches is a good way to get yourself killed when dealing with an enraged jinchuriki._

Naruto charged her once more, and the jonin felt shock run through her as she observed the sheer speed of the boy's advance. _Crap, he's even faster than Killer Bee at this level! There's no way I could move that fast without using a cloak!_ Yugito cursed the cruel twist of fate that left her as the host the second-weakest of the Tailed Beasts; even after she spent over two decades of difficult training mastering the chakra of the Two-Tailed Cat, Naruto was an even match for her as a jinchuriki by simple virtue of the sheer might of the Nine-Tailed Fox.

Yugito dodged several of Naruto's attacks; the boy's rage driven offensive was reckless; there were dozens of openings in the boy's defenses that Yugito could have used to launch a counter-attack, but the sheer speed of his assault left her with no chance to exploit her opportunities. The boy's chakra-fueled speed and power made up for the skill gap between the two ninjas, and while Yugito was still reasonably certain she could beat him the battle would be neither quick, nor easy. _If I'm going to take him down fast and without putting his life at risk then I need to have a big power advantage over him, not fight on his level_.

Yugito managed to unleash a quick Foxfire jutsu, forcing the boy to retreat quite some distance to avoid being roasted, and used the time the attack bought her to bring her chakra cloak back up, this time unleashing enough of the Cat's chakra to form a second tail. _That's everything I can use without things getting dangerous; if I go to version two I wouldn't have enough self-control left to be sure he would survive the fight._

Rather than resuming the attack as Yugito had expected him to do, the boy paused, staring at Yugito with unnerving intensity. Naruto cocked his head to one side, then the other, and then suddenly went unnaturally still. Then, to Yugito's dawning horror, orange chakra began bubbling up around the boy, slowly forming itself into the shape of fox ears and a tail. _Fuck! He's trying to copy my chakra cloak!_ Naruto's cloak was a crude, shaky construct compared the streamlined perfection of Yugito's, but even a rough and ugly chakra cloak was a dangerous threat to the jonin's mission.

_He won't stop with just one tail; at the very least try to match my two, and he might try to go all the way up to nine! He can barely even manage a basic chakra cloak, if he tries to add more tails to it he could unintentionally move up to version two, or even a full transformation. _Yugito shuddered_. There's no way he'd be able to stop the Fox from taking over completely if he pushes things that far, and I don't even want to think about how much damage he could do while full transformation with the Fox in control._ Yugito's eyes flicked to the nearby border village. _Everyone there would be dead for sure, and that would probably just be the start of it. Plus, after a rampage like that Naruto's mind would be broken … he might never find the strength of will to regain control of his body again._

Yugito grimaced; she could only see one course of action that would allow her to achieve a remotely acceptable outcome, and she was not terribly happy with it. The jonin charged Naruto, and right when the boy set his feet to receive her charge she veered off, shooting past him and towards TenTen. The Kumo jinchuriki easily scooped the girl up, and with a chakra-enhanced throw tossed the wounded girl into the middle of the river. With a broken arm and several shattered ribs TenTen had no hope of swimming, and the wounded girl began frantically struggling in a desperate attempt to keep her head above the water. The power of the Two-Tailed Cat allowed the Kumo jonin to hop across the river with no difficulty, and she beat a hasty retreat back into the heart of Lightning Country.

For a brief instant Naruto was tempted to pursue the woman, to rip his vengeance out of her quivering flesh until she begged him for forgiveness and pleaded for his mercy. However, TenTen desperately needed his help, and with an effort of will Naruto set aside his burning rage and any thoughts of vengeance on the Kumo ninja. The boy was barely aware of the chakra cloak receding and his body returning to nomral as he turned away from the other jinchuriki and leapt into the river, swimming as fast as he could to TenTen's position. The girl was desperately struggling to keep from going completely under, and after a few frantic seconds he was able to get a good enough hold around her waist to begin pulling her back to safety. Judging from the soft moans of discomfort slipping past TenTen's lips the journey was obviously causing her pain, but she endured as stoically as she could.

By the time the two genin made their way back to solid land Naruto TenTen was barely clinging to consciousness, but the girl stubbornly attempted to stand up on her own, which only resulted in Naruto rescuing her from falling flat on her face. "Here, lean on my shoulder TenTen-chan." The boy offered, shifting around so she could rest her uninjured arm on top of him.

"I'm alright Naruto, and you're probably hurting worse than I am." The girl insisted stubbornly. "Besides, I don't want to be a burden."

"You're not a burden, you're my best friend." Naruto pointed out. "Besides, I feel fine, I'm pretty sure when I got pissed off and started using the Fox's chakra it healed me; Gai-sensei said that jichuriki heal fast. Even my nose got fixed."

The girl reluctantly allowed herself to lean on Naruto, letting out a soft sigh as her pain eased slightly. With an annoyed grimace, the girl said. "Dammit, I was supposed to be the one saving you, not the other way around."

"Don't worry TenTen-chan, I'll always think you're awesome." The boy assured her.

"Thanks Naruto." The girl smiled, relaxing and letting her friend help her back to town.

* * *

_I shouldn't have spent so much time toying with the two of them. _Yugito chided herself. _Sure, it was interesting to see just how good they both were, and it is always fun to let them think they might actually have a chance of winning before crushing them, but I spent too much time playing when I should have just finished the battle._ _I hate failing missions, but there was just no retrieval was a viable option any more. At the rate he was tapping into the chakra of the Nine-Tails I'd have to go all-out to beat him, and a fight that big would've cause way too much collateral damage. Forget a diplomatic incident, death and destruction on that scale probably would have started a war between Konoha and Kumo, and Kumo doesn't need that kind of trouble right now_. Yugito paused and looked back towards the river, using the Cat's chakra to enhance her vision beyond anything a human could manage. The jonin allowed herself a slight smile when she saw Naruto, no longer channeling any of the Fox's chakra, slowly making his way up the muddy banks of the river with a battered and soaked but breathing TenTen leaning heavily upon him for support. _Good, I didn't want her dead I, just wanted him to worry more about saving her than trying to kill me._

Yugito briefly considered reversing course and making another attempt on the Uzumaki boy, she might be able to catch him off guard and take him out with a quick ambush now, but she quickly dismissed the plan. _No reason to think he wouldn't go right back to using the Fox's chakra again, and I don't think he'd let me toss the girl into the river again if I need a quick getaway. I would only have one shot at taking him down, and I really don't have a good track record when it comes to putting Naruto down with a single hit._ Even if the jonin had been inclined to change her mind, doubling back to go after the genin again ceased to be an option when Gai and their remaining teammate arrived. Yugito sighed and shook her head. _Well, I suppose I had better report back to the Raikage; I hope they don't take the cost of replacing all the furniture he'll smash out of my pay._

Yugito tossed one last look back at her recent opponents, and a brief smile flickered over her face. _Those two are nice kids, pity they had to be born in Konoha instead of Kumo. I hope they'll be able to handle Akatsuki when those bastard make a move against Naruto._

* * *

**Reviewer Responses:**

**geetac, marc:** Glad you liked it! Hope the conclusion of the battle was as good as its beginning.

**Celtic Reaper:** If both Yugito and Killer Bee had both been involved in the mission then the fight scene would have been very, very short and this fic would be about Naruto becoming a Kumo ninja. Yugito on her own is a dangerous opponent, but Killer Bee is on a level above her; unless Team Gai had someone like Jiraiya tagging along to help them out they wouldn't stand a chance. This is a guy who made Sasuke look like a fool and nearly killed him and his entire team when they fought; Team Gai wouldn't stand a chance against him at this point in their development.

**Kalemoth:** Glad you liked TenTen's reaction, because that is exactly what I was going for; like you said, 99% of the time we get a reaction to the jinchuriki reveal it is one of those two extremes. I wanted to go with something a little complex this time. Most people would be quite shocked and need a little time to think things over when they find out that their best friend has a demon sealed inside of them.

As for Naruto's intelligence, it is not so much a matter of him being stupid as it is that, as TenTen put it in chapter 1, his mind just does not work quite the same way as the average ninja's. That means sometimes he seems like an idiot who cannot figure out simple stuff, and other times he realizes things that not even a genius would understand as quickly and clearly. That is part of what makes him such an unpredictable opponent; he sucks at finding the conventional and normal solutions (thus his crappy Academy grades), but he excels at finding the unexpected, unconventional solutions.

**Deus Terran:** Thanks, that is exactly what I was aiming for in terms of teammate reactions and Naruto's intelligence. At this point, I am still trying to keep Naruto fairly close to the #1 unpredictable hyperactive knucklehead he was early on; right now the only big change he has had is that he is not as desperate for acknowledgement/approval as he was in cannon since he has got his teammates and sensei giving him that already.

**Hadrian1013:** I would not say Gai was too trusting of Yugito; he did tell Naruto he should use their conversation to pump her for information on Kumo's secrets after all. He got caught off-guard by having his food drugged, but he did not really have any reason to expect Yugito to go after him quite that directly. He certainly expected Yugito to be dangerous, but he was on the lookout for subversion or trying to steal some of Konoha's secrets, not a direct attack.

**Eromancer:** I generally tried to give Yugito some cat-like traits without going to overboard on things, similar to the way Naruto has a couple fox traits like being a prankster at heart but it is not too overstated. She definitely likes toying with and gloating over her opponent a bit too much, and she always projects unshakable confidence even when deep down she is getting pretty worried about the situation. As for combat styles, Naruto does not fight much like a fox, Gaara does not fight like a tanuki, and Killer Bee does not fight like an ox, therefore Yugito does not fight like a cat.

**justbin:** Yugito defecting has always struck me as one of the odder plot ideas circulating around when one takes into account the fact that out of all the jinchuriki out there she's the one that is least likely to ever defect. It is well established that she is very proud of being a Kumo ninja, and Kumo is the best of all the major ninja villages when it comes to how jinchuriki are treated. The other jinchuriki (even Naruto) might be tempted to defect since their villages treat them poorly, and Killer Bee is willing to abandon Kumo just because he has gotten bored and wants to do something different, but Yugito would never leave her home.


	6. Aftermath

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto

* * *

Team Gai spent two more days in the border town in order to give TenTen a chance to recuperate from the worst of her injuries. The wait could easily have been quite a bit longer if Gai had not spent the entire day of their wait checking in with every group of Konoha ninjas patrolling the border until he found a group that included a medical ninja. While TenTen's arm set and otherwise tended with basic first aid, only medical ninjutsu was capable of setting broken ribs, and without the Bone Fusing Jutsu to speed the process it would have taken weeks for her ribs to heal on their own. Even after TenTen's ribs had been set and fused, the medical ninja ordered TenTen to refrain from engaging in anything more strenuous than walking back to Konoha at a leisurely pace for the next two weeks. TenTen had gone to Gai in the hopes that he might relax the medical ninja's restrictions, and was quite surprised when he immediately agreed with the medic's timetable, and sternly told the girl that trying to train before she finished recovering could make her injuries worse.

Gai had made a few efforts to talk to Naruto about everything that had happened, but while the boy had provided a detailed description of his and TenTen's battles with Yugito he had become evasive when Gai asked if they discussed anything before the fighting started. Gai's only attempt to raise the subject of Konoha's treatment of the boy and the Hokage's law concealing his jinchuriki status ended with the normally cheerful and energetic boy suddenly going still and offering no response to Gai's words beyond a vague grunt of acknowledgement.

The journey back to Konoha took two days longer than it normally would have. While nobody ever came out and said that they were setting an easier pace for TenTen's sake, the girl understood why even the training-obsessed Lee continued to make up excuses to take a break for half an hour in the middle of the day or set up camp early. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about that; TenTen definitely needed the easy pace and frequent rest stops and she knew her teammates were trying to help her, but she disliked the fact that they saw her as weak enough to need help in the first place.

When Team Gai finally arrived back at Konoha they were immediately directed to the Hokage's office, though TenTen was excused from attending the meeting on account of her injuries. Upon the Team's arrival the Hokage immediately cleared the room of the usual assortment of clients, ninjas awaiting their next assignment, and administrative aides, allowing him to confer with the three member of Team Gai in private.

"Gai." The Hokage began sternly. "I have already read the preliminary report you sent ahead of your arrival, but would you care to offer a more detailed explanation of why two of your genin were forced to battle a jonin by themselves?"

"I … made an error in judgment." Gai admitted, hanging his head in shame. "I believed that Yugito's goal was to compromise Naruto's loyalty to Konoha, and attempted to use that as an opportunity to gain access to some of their secrets. I was absolutely certain of Naruto's loyalty to my team and our village, so I did not believe that she posed an imminent threat to Konoha. I failed to anticipate that she would use force against Naruto, or that she would have taken preemptive action against the rest of my team." Gai sighed and summarized. "I expected her to act as a spy instead of a kidnapper, which allowed her to catch me off guard. I have no excuse."

The Hokage gave a grave nod, and then declared. "The only ninjas who never make mistakes are the ones who never make decisions. I believe that you made the best decisions you could with the information you had available, and you came to reasonable, if incorrect, conclusions. I trust that you have learned a valuable lesson from this experience that will allow you to better aid your students in the future."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Gai intoned softly, his head still low as he wallowed in shame.

"Very good then." The Hokage turned his attention from the jonin and addressed the team as a whole. "Now, considering the circumstances I think you should know that three days ago we received a message from Kumo. It contained a lengthy and eloquently written letter of apology from Nii Yugito, in which she explained that her attempted kidnapping of Naruto Uzumaki was a rash, impulsive decision prompted by her own outrage at hearing of his treatment in Konoha and the fact that the leaders of Konoha concealed his status as a jinchuriki from him. Consequently, her attack was upon Naruto and TenTen was completely unsanctioned by the Raikage, and she bears sole responsibility for her actions."

"What?" Naruto shouted. "But … but that's a complete load of crap!"

"I am quite certain you are correct." The Hokage agreed. "But do you have any way to prove that she was, in fact, executing a fully sanctioned mission?" The Uzumaki boy paused in thought then grimaced and shook his head. "You see the problem then; her explanation is plausible enough that we can't disprove it. The wording of her apology would also make pursuing any complaint against Kumo problematic; her claim that the attack was an emotional reaction to Konoha's misdeeds and some of my own policies could substantially muddy the issue." Noting the less than pleased look on Naruto's face when he mentioned this point, the Hokage decided he would have to speak with the boy once the meeting was over.

"In any case," The Hokage continued. "Her apology, however insincere, provides us with a way to close the issue and save face without forcing a confrontation with Kumo. If we did challenge Kumo it could lead to a conflict that is not in Konoha's best interests at this time." _The Third Great Shinobi War was horrifying enough, there is no way I will allow a fourth one to break out if I can avoid it. Besides, even if Danzo and the other hawks wanted to use this as a pretext for war, there are many within Konoha who would refuse to start a conflict with Kumo over an attack on Naruto._

"So … so that's it?" Naruto demanded incredulously. "She just sends us a fake apology full of lies, and then nobody does anything? What the hell is going on here?"

"Politics." The old man answered gruffly. "I understand that Nii Yugito attacked you and wounded one of your comrades, but there are only a limited number of responses available to us. Do you think that I should start a war where thousands of people might die, just because one Kumo ninja hurt your best friend?"

"I …" Naruto considered the Hokage's question and with a sigh answered. "No, that wouldn't do anybody any good."

"I am glad you understand." Hiruzen replied. Resuming a gruff, businesslike manner, the Hokage continued. "Now, while your mission was originally classed as a C-rank mission, a battle with a foreign jonin who was also a jinchuriki would normally be an S-ranked mission. Because of this, the mission will officially be recorded as S-rank, and you will all receive the appropriate pay for a mission of that magnitude." With a slight smile, the Hokage added. "You might be pleased to know that Yugito forfeited the last pay she earned on her last five missions as punishment for her actions, and the Raikage provided those funds to us as compensation for the attack. I think it is quite appropriate that your additional pay comes from at the expense of your attacker."

Lee suddenly spoke up. "Hokage-sama. I did not participate in the fighting, nor was I able to do anything significant to assist my comrades. I …" The boy's head dropped in shame. "I am not worthy of receiving the additional pay you offer us. Please divide my share between Naruto-kun and TenTen-san; they deserve it far more than I do."

"A noble gesture, but are you certain you wish to do this?" The Hokage asked. "The standard pay for an S-ranked mission is a considerable sum to a young genin; I am sure you could put it to good use."

"I would take no pleasure from spending money I did not rightfully earn." The boy answered firmly. _Next time I'll be right there fighting by Naruto and TenTen's side! I won't let a simple mistake hold me back and stop me from helping my friends!_

"Very well." The Hokage agreed with boy's request. "You will still receive the standard wage for a C-ranked mission though; according to your sensei's report you performed quite well during the course of your original mission."

Impressed by his student's actions, Gai immediately volunteered to give up his share of the bonus pay as well. With the addition of Gai and Lee's shares the bonus Naruto earned from the mission was more twice as much as Naruto had earned in all the missions the boy had been on since making genin put together. _Awesome! I can get, like, a more than a thousand bowls of ramen with this much!_ After a moment's consideration the Hokage offered Naruto a second envelope filled with money, then said. "I can trust you to deliver TenTen's pay to her, correct?"

"Sure! I was gonna go check on her once we were done anyway." The boy answered.

"Excellent." Turning his attention to the other two members of Team Gai, Hiruzen said. "If the two of you will excuse us, I need to have a word in private with Naruto."

Gai and Lee offered the Hokage respectful bows and departed. Once they were gone, Naruto turned to Konoha's leader and asked. "Hey, Hokage-sama, we're totally in private and nobody else can hear us talking, right?"

"That's correct Naruto." Hiruzen confirmed, removing his hat and setting it aside in an effort to set a less formal tone for the meeting. "Speak freely."

"What the hell, old man?" The boy shrieked, scowling at Hiruzen. "Why didn't you freaking tell me that I had the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed inside of me?"

"I believed it was in the best interests of the village to do so." Hiruzen answered simply.

"That's it?" Naruto demanded. "You completely screwed me over! I saw the kinda stuff Yugito could do 'cause she'd been trained to use her Tailed Beast, and she was so much better than me it was completely nuts! If she'd really wanted to, she coulda killed me in five seconds flat without even breaking a sweat! Why wasn't anybody teaching me that sort of stuff? Hell, why wasn't anybody teaching me anything?"

"The people who would have been assigned to any special training program would not have had the proper outlook." The Hokage answered calmly. "I made a judgment call, and decided that you would benefit more from enjoying a relatively normal and stable childhood than from any training program geared towards maximizing your potential as a jinchuriki." _Danzo still has far too much influence in Konoha; the only result of giving him special would have been for Naruto to end up as one of Danzo's pawns, and I would never allow that to happen_.

"A normal childhood?" Naruto shouted, repeating the Hokage's words with shocked incredulity. "You think I had a normal childhood? Bullshit! I always just figured the people who treated me like crap were assholes, or maybe my parents did something really bad and they were taking it out on me, but you knew the entire time what was really going on! You could've at least told me the truth when it became pretty damn clear that people were treating me like crap even though you had some sort of law saying that they couldn't talk about me being a jinchuriki."

"And what would you have done if you knew the truth by that point, Naruto?" The Hokage asked. "Would you have confronted the next person who failed to show you the respect you believed that you deserved? Would you have run around the village, screaming the truth at the top of your lungs and rubbing salt into the wounds left behind by the Fox's attack eleven years ago? Perhaps you would have engaged in a series of fox-themed pranks against your enemies? I feared that one or all of those things might be your reaction. By the time it was clear that no law could force people to act as though you were not a jinchuriki your personality had developed in a direction that would have made informing you of the truth inadvisable. Your reaction to the news and retaliation against those who neglected and derided you would have only made things worse." Hiruzen looked at the boy once more, and with a sigh conceded. "Or so I thought at the time." _Naruto has matured over the last few months; he can still act very childishly at times, but the boy has begun to show hints of the man he will one day become._

"Yugito tried to get me to defect to Kumo." Naruto confessed.

"Gai and I suspected as much, though you never confirmed that detail of your encounter." The Hokage responded.

"I … for a moment I really thought about saying yes." The boy admitted. "I mean, Konoha's my home and all, but she kept saying how if I was in Kumo people would be a lot nicer to me and treat me with respect."

"She was right." The Hokage reluctantly conceded. "Nobody in Kumo would ever dare to be openly disrespectful to a jinchuriki. Killer Bee is the Raikage's brother, and anyone who dares to speak against him faces swift and brutal punishment, often delivered by the Raikage himself. Jinchuriki receive a great deal of respect in Kumo, but one must wonder how much of that respect is truly genuine. Perhaps Kumo truly is more tolerant and understanding the Konoha, or maybe the Raikage can make his people to respect jinchuriki by sheer force of personality … or perhaps they merely offer the appearance of respect lest they face his wrath."

"Or maybe you could've made the villagers respect me if you'd just tried harder." Naruto countered.

"Maybe." Hiruzen conceded with a weary sigh. "But I doubt it would truly have worked. Using force might make them wear a mask of respect, but they would hate you all the more in their hearts. The Hokage is powerful, but even I can't force people to think the way I would like them to. The only way you will ever truly win the respect of the villagers is if you earn it through your own labors."

"Yeah, there's no shortcuts to getting real respect, are there?" Naruto said, grasping the old man's point. "Nobody in Kumo really knows anything about me, why would any of them have a reason to really respect me? They'd just act all respectful because Yugito and the Raikage told them to."

"Exactly." The Hokage said, smiling at the young man's comprehension.

"That sucks." Naruto complained. "It's not fair that I've gotta work so hard just to get anybody to really acknowledge me, especially when almost everybody else gets that for free." The boy took a deep breath, and his face hardened with resolve. "But whining and complaining about how life's not fair isn't gonna get anything done! You say I've gotta work hard if I really want people to respect me? Well, Gai-sensei's always saying that Lee and TenTen and I are all gonna be geniuses of hard work!"

"Indeed. Perhaps I should keep an eye on you, Naruto." The Hokage said, a slight smile on his weathered face. "Rumor has it you're quite interested in replacing me some day, and from what I've seen of you today you would make a fine Hokage one day."

"Really?" Naruto asked, obvious glee in his voice. Leveling a challenging finger at the old man, Naruto declared. "You better watch out old man, 'cause your days are numbered! By this time next year I'm gonna be sitting in that chair, and then I'll make you do a buncha crappy D-rank missions! I'm just gonna sit back and laugh while you have to go around digging up potatoes and babysitting and grocery shopping and dog-walking and all that other worthless stuff!"

Hiruzen chuckled at the boy's antics. _Naruto might grow up to be a fine Hokage, but there are still plenty of years left before he actually grows up. At times like this he really reminds me of his mother._ As the boy was about to leave his office the Hokage called out, "One last matter of business, Naruto. Nii Yugito also included a brief personal note for you alongside her much lengthier and much less honest apology. It is quite short, only one sentence long. Pulling out the note in question, the Hokage read. "'Naruto-kun: If you ever encounter a person wearing black robes with red clouds on them, run away; do not approach them or attempt to fight them under any circumstances.'" Looking up from the note to meet the young man's eyes, the Hokage asked. "I don't suppose you have any idea what that means?"

Naruto shrugged. "Nope, I've never seen anybody dressed like that in my life." The boy frowned in thought, then gave another shrug. "Anyways, I'm gonna go see TenTen-chan now, see you later old man."

* * *

To say that TenTen's parents were less than delighted when their little girl came home from her latest mission with an assortment of broken bones would be a gross understatement. Naturally an explanation had been demanded as to how she could have sustained such serious injuries, and when TenTen gave them a rough summary of the events of her mission, in particular that she had been wounded defending Naruto, the situation had rapidly degenerated.

While they had never been particularly outspoken about it, TenTen knew that her parents did not approve of her close friendship with Naruto Uzumaki. In the past it had not been much of an issue; TenTen had attributed their dislike to the fact that the boy had a reputation as an immature prankster and been content to largely ignore their mild disapproval of their friendship. Meanwhile, her parents had been wise enough not to press the issue when they could tell their daughter was genuinely fond of the boy, and their early wariness had begun to thaw as the friendship none of the problems they feared it might. However, learning the truth about Naruto and the Nine-Tailed Fox left TenTen in no mood to brook even relatively minor perceived slights against the boy, while her parents were naturally far more worried about their daughter's wellbeing than any other issue. Under such circumstances, a rather heated difference of opinion was inevitable.

"Trying to fight a jonin was stupid and reckless, TenTen." Her mother declared harshly. "It's a miracle you survived at all."

"So, you think I should have just sat back and watched while she kidnapped Naruto instead of trying to help him?" TenTen demanded. "I mean, I know the two of you hate him, but I didn't think you were that petty."

"Now TenTen, it's not like that." Her father chided. "You're mother's just worried about you; so am I for that matter. I understand that you like Naruto, but you nearly got yourself killed trying to help him. I just think you should ask yourself if he's really worth that much to you."

"Yes, he is." TenTen answered without hesitation.

"TenTen, how well do you really know Naruto?" Her mother asked, concern clear in her voice. "I understand that you believe your feelings for him are very deeply rooted and genuine, but you've only known him for three months. There might be really important things about him that you just don't know…"

"You're talking about the Nine-Tailed Fox, aren't you?" TenTen responded.

"How did you hear about that?" Her father immediately demanded. "It's against the law for anybody to reveal…"

"That foreign jonin we got into a fight with told us." TenTen answered.

"Don't you understand how that changes things, TenTen?" Her mother asked. "There has been a lot of trouble with jinchuriki in the past; whenever you have a person with a demon living inside of them it's inevitable that there's going to be trouble. Even if he seems like a nice boy, the demon might take over his body, and then … well who knows what could happen?"

"Have you ever even met Naruto?" TenTen countered. "I'm not talking about just seeing him in passing one day, but actually spending a couple minutes talking to him, getting to know more about him than the fact that he's got that stupid Fox sealed inside of him."

"Well, no." Her mother admitted. "But I don't really see how that's relevant. Naruto himself isn't what's important, what matters is that the Fox could…"

"Never mind." TenTen let out a sound halfway between a groan and a shout of frustration. "You've obviously already made up your mind, so there's no point in even trying to talk to you." The girl turned about and stormed up to the front door, fumbling with the doorknob as agitation and the fact that her injuries forced her to use her off hand caused her to have difficulty with the relatively simple task.

"Wait!" Her father called out. "Where are you going TenTen?"

"Out." The girl replied shortly, finally managing to yank the door open.

"What about dinner?" Her mother asked; she had spent the last half-hour working on a special meal to welcome the girl home after her long mission.

"I'll eat out." The girl declared a moment before the door slammed shut behind her.

"She turned thirteen three weeks ago and she's already acting like a teenager." TenTen's father commented mournfully.

The uncomfortable silence descended on the household that was only broken fifteen minutes later by a loud knock on the door. TenTen's father opened the door to find a somewhat nervous looking Naruto Uzumaki standing in the threshhold.

"Oh … um … hello TenTen's Dad." The boy said, desperately trying to recall what the man's name was while nervously rubbing the back of his head. "Where's TenTen at? I kinda wanted to see how she's doing since she's still kinda hurt and all, plus the Hokage told me to deliver her share of the mission pay."

"Oh … hello Naruto-kun." The girl's father said. "TenTen went out a while ago, but you can drop her pay off here and I'll give it to her when she gets back."

"Alright, thanks TenTen's Dad." The boy said, handing over the cash-filled envelope.

The man gave a chuckle, and then said. "For future reference, my name is not 'TenTen's Dad,' it's –."

"Who is at the front door, dear?" TenTen's mother called out from the kitchen.

"It's Naruto." TenTen's father called back. "He was just dropping something off for TenTen."

"Hi TenTen's Mom!" The boy called out cheerfully.

"Hello Naruto-kun." The woman answered absently. "By the way, my name is –" The woman's introduction was suddenly interrupted by the sound of several metal objects crashing into each other. A few seconds later TenTen's mother came out of the kitchen and fixed her husband with a furious glare while addressing the man in dangerously sweet tone. "Darling, how many times have I told you put everything back where it's supposed to go when you use my kitchen?"

"Sorry." The man said timidly.

"We'll talk later." TenTen's mother declared darkly. The woman turned her attention to Naruto for moment, looking the boy over speculatively before asking. "I don't suppose you've had dinner yet, have you?"

"Huh? Nah, I was gonna see if TenTen wanted to go get some ramen or something, but since she's not here I guess I'll go by myself." The boy responded.

Guessing the direction of his wife's thoughts, TenTen's father spoke up. "Why don't you join us, Naruto-kun? We have more food than we can eat anyway, and it is past time we got to know you a little better."

"Well … I don't know…" Naruto said uncertainly before asking. "I don't suppose you guys were having ramen for dinner, were you?" _It's been an entire week since I got to eat any ramen; the last time I got any was when Yugito bought it for me, and that really just doesn't count._

"No, we're having dumplings." The man answered before making a second attempt to win the boy over. "TenTen did say that she wanted us to be properly introduced to each other; please join us."

"Well, alright then." Naruto agreed with shrug. "Thanks, TenTen's Mom and Dad."

The meal passed pleasantly enough, and by the time it was done the girl's parents had begun to understand why their daughter was so fond of Naruto; despite all his bumbling awkwardness and occasional idiocy there was just something endearing about the boy. "So, Naruto." TenTen's mother said once the meal was finished. "TenTen said you saved her life on your last mission. Is that true?"

"Yeah, but I didn't really do anything special." Naruto admitted. "I mean, I'd risk death to rescue if she was in danger, so it doesn't seem like just fishing her out of a river when she was having trouble is that big of a deal. Plus, when TenTen saved my life she was so much more badass about it."

TenTen's mother looked the boy over once more, and then gave a barely perceptible nod of approval. "I think I have some dessert in the refrigerator." She declared, departing the room to return to the kitchen.

Naruto leaned in to whisper conspiratorially with TenTen's father while her mother was out of the room. "By the way … what're your names again?" The boy plastered a sheepish grin on his face as he admitted. "I kinda forgot…"

"Actually, I don't think we ever had the chance to tell you." TenTen's father told him with a smile. "My name is…"

_TenTen-chan's parents seem like they're pretty nice. _Naruto mused idly._ I wonder what she's up to anyways?_

* * *

"Lee, I'm really not sure that's a good idea." TenTen informed her teammate. She had noticed that Lee was in the midst of some sort of activity at one of Konoha's many small restaurants and decided to join him; she had been getting hungry anyway. She had been expecting to spend a bit of time hanging out with her teammate, but instead she found herself mixed up in his latest crazy training scheme, and now felt obligated to make an effort to save him from the inevitable fallout.

"Why not TenTen-san?" Lee asked earnestly. "Exposing myself to gradually increasing dosages of common shinobi drugs will allow me to build up a resistance to them, so that if anybody ever tries drugging my food again it would have absolutely no effect. Gai-sensei thought it was an excellent idea; he even said he would be doing the same thing with his own food."

"That part of it makes sense." TenTen conceded. "But the problem is that you don't know nearly enough about drugs and poisons to do that kind of thing by yourself. You need someone who's an expert to give you guidance and advice!"

"I found a very detailed book in the library." Lee informed her. "As long as I carefully follow all of the instructions in it everything should be fine." The boy frowned in confusion, and then added. "I still haven't been able to determine what exact drug she used on us though; I could find ones that matched almost all of my other symptoms, but so far I haven't learned of any poisons that make you wake up with wet hair and hand-shaped red marks on your cheeks. It is also rather curious that Gai-sensei did not have those symptoms, but every person has a slightly different reaction to even basic poisons."

TenTen briefly considered telling the boy she had dumped a glass of water on his head and slapped him a couple times in an effort to wake him from his stupor. In the end, she decided there was no harm in letting him continue to believe he had suffered some particularly unusual side effect, and it would save her the trouble of explaining things. "You need to do more than skim through one book before doing something as complicated as this!" TenTen insisted. "What if you mess up the dosage and knock yourself out because you put too much of the poison in your soup?"

"I read that part of the book very carefully." Lee told her, before shooting her a smile worthy of Gai and declaring. "Besides, if I do accidentally knock myself out this time, then next time I'll put in twice as much poison to make up for it!"

TenTen's head made sudden, violent contact with the table. "You can't treat this like you do training with Gai-sensei!" The girl groaned.

"It is a different type of training, but the same basic principles should still apply." Lee insisted stubbornly. "If I set a punishment for myself in the event of failure, I'll try that much harder to succeed, and if I do still fail then I gain the benefit of extra training." Determined to prove his point, Lee dumped a small vial of fine powder into his soup, and then quickly consumed the entire bowl.

"Lee, I'm in no condition to carry you home after you pass out!" TenTen scolded the boy.

"Don't be ridiculous TenTen." The boy said confidently. "I measured everything very carefully and there is absolutely no way anything could possibly go wrong." The boy frowned and squinted at the girl, and then asked. "When did you dye your hair green anyway? It makes you … shine … like … an angel …" The boy tumbled out of his seat and fell to the ground, then began snoring loudly.

TenTen sighed.

* * *

With TenTen barred from heavy training or missions Team Gai suddenly found itself gifted with a substantial amount of free time. Gai himself had redoubled his own training efforts; the man was still trying to deal with lingering guilt over the fact that Yugito had outmaneuvered him and placed Naruto and TenTen in peril. One of the primary reasons each genin team had a jonin at its head was to ensure that if they suddenly faced an opponent beyond their skill level there would be a highly skilled and experienced ninja on hand to both defeat the threat and protect the younger ninjas. However, when his students had desperately needed his aid Gai had not been there to protect them; they had been left to fed for themselves.

While Gai's personal training regimen had always bordered on insanity, the man had taken things to a new extreme lately. When he was not tending to his charges or sleeping (and he didn't spare much time for sleep) the man was always busy running laps, doing pushups, or just about any other form of exercise he could conceive of. After several days of near-constant exercise it had become obvious that one of the things removed from his daily life in order to make more room for training was personal hygiene; at the most recent team meeting all three of his genin had been careful to remain upwind of their fragrant instructor.

Kakashi had never been more grateful for the fact that his mask completely covered his nose, and thus spared him from the worst of the eccentric jonin's odor. "Yo." The man greeted his self-proclaimed eternal rival. "You've been back for a week now and you haven't even issued one stupid or pointless challenge."

"Oh, hello Kakashi." Gai said distractedly, barely even acknowledging the man's existence as he continued to perform sit-ups at a frantic pace. "I've been busy training."

"Yes, I can see that." Kakashi replied, pulling out his dog-eared copy of Makeout Paradise and reading through one of his favorite scenes. "You know," He said casually. "You should probably stop blaming yourself for the fact that things didn't go according to plan during your last mission. It really wasn't your fault, and all this crazy exercise is starting to make you stinky."

"Naruto and TenTen were my responsibility." Gai declared between grunts of exertion as he continued performing sit-ups. _Only a thousand more to go, then it's back to running laps!_ "I was supposed to protect them, and instead they had to protect themselves."

"They survived, didn't they?" Kakashi responded.

"Only because of the Nine-Tailed Fox." Gai declared with a grimace. "Not because of anything I did."

"Oh really?" Kakashi asked. "Funny, I thought you were their sensei…"

"I am." Gai answered stiffly. "And as their sensei, I failed."

"You trained them, didn't you?"

"Every day." Gai affirmed.

"Well, if the two of them managed to survive a fight with a jonin you must have done something right with their training." Kakashi asserted listlessly.

"That's not the point." Gai said, pausing in his string of sit-ups for half a second in order to unleash a wearied sigh. "They had to do everything by themselves because I wasn't there to help them."

"Oh, now I understand what's going on." Kakashi declared, his lone visible eye widening in comprehension. "You don't trust your students. I guess I can understand why; that Lee kid does seem kind of shifty…"

"Of course I trust my students!" Gai snapped, fixing his fellow jonin with a glare.

"As long as you're there to keep an eye on them you can trust them, but once they're out of your sight … well who knows what could happen? Kakashi asked.

"Exactly!" Gai agreed with his rival. "If I make the same mistake again one them might die!"

"Well then, I suppose you better keep an eye on all three of them all the time then, right?" Kakashi suggested. "After all, it's not like you plan to train them into highly skilled warriors who can stand up for themselves and fight their own battles."

Gai halted in the middle of a sit-up, then bolted upright and unleashed a triumphant laugh. "Ah, what a fool I've been! All this time I've been thinking that I needed to train myself to become a better ninja so I could protect my precious students, when what I should have been doing was training them so that next time they find themselves within the maelstrom of battle they'll be prepared! Thank you, my eternal rival!" The eccentric jonin bolted off into the distance, passing by Naruto on his way, who gave the still-fragrant jonin a wide berth before noting Kakashi and waving to him energetically.

"Hey Kakashi-san!" Naruto called out in greeting. "Haven't seen you around for a while." The young man's eyes widened, and then he began frantically digging through his tool pouch. "Hey, I just remembered, I've still got that old scroll of yours. I know you kept saying it wasn't yours and I oughta read it, but when I did I found out that it definitely wasn't mine, so I'd kinda like to give it back to you now."

Kakashi's one visible eye blinked in dull shock. _You have to be kidding; he's had that scroll for over a month and he still hasn't figured out that gave it to him "accidentally- on-purpose._ "Naruto." Kakashi explained as though he was speaking to particularly dim-witted child. "I meant to give that scroll to you. Gai doesn't use ninjutsu much, so I thought I would give you a bit of help with that."

"Oh." Naruto said, his eyes widening with sudden comprehension. "Well why didn't ya just say so instead of being all weird about it?"

"I'm not your sensei; Gai is." Kakashi told the young man. "If I was openly helping you when you've already got a sensei it would seem like I was saying Gai wasn't capable of teaching his own students. So, when I give you tips I need to exercise a degree of subtlety or else I'll be insulting Gai."

"Subtlety?" The boy asked, frowning in confusion. "What's that?"

_I can't tell if he's being sarcastic or if he really is that dumb…_

* * *

**A/N:** I'm not as happy with this chapter as I've been with the previous ones, but I needed a bit of a transitional chapter to show all the fallout of the last mission and wrap things up.

**Reviewer Responses:**

**Celtic Reaper, OrionTheHunter, Bobboky, imgonnadie:** Glad you liked it, here is some more.

**Stiehl: **They are one of the more popular oddball pairings, presumably because even though she's twice his age (when people actually user her cannon age) she is the only female jinchuriki to show up in the anime and manga.

**Wyrtha: **Putting Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke on the same team really was not a very good idea; all three of them were the type of students that needed a lot more help from their jonin-sensei than average. Kurenai and Asuma did not have nearly so much of a teaching burden since all their students came pre-equipped with useful clan jutsu. Meanwhile, Naruto and Sakura needed lots of training to reach their full potential, and Sasuke needed a full time teacher/psychologist to keep him from going as nuts as he's become over the course of the plot.

**Skeptical:** Keep in mind that gaining a promotion up the ninja ranks is much more about one's ability to think tactically, be an effective leader, and function as part of a team than one-on-one combat skills. Also, when Yugito actually went all-out against them as opposed to holding back to avoid causing too much damage and/or so she could have a little fun with them first Naruto and TenTen both went down in five seconds and got badly injured in the process.

**qwe123:** Naruto did find her offer tempting; if Yugito had gotten a chance to make it prior to his friendship with TenTen Naruto definitely would have accepted. I do not want to give away too much about future plot elements, but I will say that Yugito will be turning up again at some point in the future.

**Lord Grond:** I was a worried about undervaluing Yugito in the fight, but I think she gave a respectable performance. Keep in mind that she most certainly did not lose the fight; the only reason she withdrew was that continuing the fight would have pushed Naruto into psycho-jinchuriki mode. At that point she had to choose between falling back to try another day or getting dozens of people killed as collateral damage (not to mention the high risk of starting a war) and leaving Naruto so traumatized he'd be useless to Kumo anyway.

**hadrianway1013: **Hope you like my take on Lee and Gai's reactions to being drugged by Yugito. It's always fun to use internally consistent logic to come to completely insane conclusions.


	7. Naruto's Secrets

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Naruto

* * *

While the six months that had passed since Team Gai's encounter with Nii Yugito had been relatively calm, they had been anything but boring. Gai had taken the team's training up to a new level of insanity, and things soon reached the point where the team began to see actual missions as a welcome break from his brutal training schedule. Spending a week or so protecting a traveling merchant from bandits was easy when measured against to one of Gai's workouts, especially since none of their missions had resulted in anything more strenuous than the occasional skirmish with a group of woefully outmatched robbers.

While all of the genin had improved enormously, Rock Lee had undergone the most dramatic change. When Lee finally abandoned his fruitless efforts to become proficient in ninjutsu or genjutsu in favor of focusing exclusively on taijutsu the boy finally began to close the gap that existed between him and his teammates. While Lee lacked any sort of natural talent for hand-to-hand combat, his sheer determination to succeed and Lee's willingness to devote almost every waking hour of every day for the last six months to constant practice had turned the boy into a brilliant shinobi.

While TenTen and Naruto had not improved quite as rapidly as Lee (mostly because Lee had been so far behind them to begin with) the duo had also improved their skills substantially. TenTen had added an impressive array of weapons to her collection and developed her skills to the point where she had mastered almost all of them. The barrage of thrown weaponry the girl could toss out with pinpoint accuracy was devastating enough to pin down an entire enemy squad, and the girl had recently worked out a way to attach chakra threads to her weapons to give her even more control. Avoiding the girl's attacks had been difficult enough before she could alter the course of her weapons in mid-flight, and now it had become almost impossible for Lee and Naruto to dodge her attacks with any degree of consistency.

Much to the girl's annoyance, Naruto had gone to his secret sensei for a solution to his inability to dodge TenTen's attacks. She still had no idea why Kakashi Hatake was so interested in the boy; the only answer she had ever managed to get out of the jonin was that he was helping Naruto because he was bored and did not really have anything better to do with his spare time. The answer was an obvious lie intended to avoid the question, but the girl had no idea what the truth could possibly be. Trying to pin the jonin down and force a straight answer out of him had proven to be a fruitless endeavor; when she could actually find the slippery jonin the man simply pulled out his favorite book and proceeded to ignore TenTen's presence and her attempts to badger him.

TenTen still did not know what Kakashi had given the boy to counter her throwing skills. While Naruto was normally willing to share the other jonin's scrolls with her, he had categorically refused to let TenTen know what he was working on, stating that he wanted to surprise her with a new secret weapon. All of the tricks she normally used to make him do what she wanted had failed; not even ramen bribes had been able to sway him into revealing his secrets. TenTen was not sure what Naruto could be working on, but odds were it was either a long-range attack designed to let him fight her at her preferred distance or something to let him close in quickly and turn the battle into a close-range engagement. TenTen was a solid melee fighter, but Naruto had a much better chance of beating her at hand-to-hand than he did in a contest of throwing weapons.

TenTen had gone so far as to attempt to spy on the boy's training a few times, but all she had been able to determine was that he seemed to be using lots of shadow clones for whatever he was working on. _It has to be something more than just swarming me with clones though, that wouldn't really be anything new or unexpected. He's already pretty good at using clones as a distraction to let him close in on me during a fight, so if he's just improving his skill with them that wouldn't warrant all this secrecy. He might have just used them all throw shuriken at him while he worked on dodging, but that isn't really worth keeping secret either. What is he up to? _

_Maybe it has something to do with the Nine Tailed Fox? If he learned how to use it as well as Yugito used her Tailed Beast then that would definitely give him a big advantage in a fight against me. He'd be fast enough to dodge my attacks even when I was going all out, and he'd be strong enough to beat me in hand-to-hand with no trouble. I know he's been working on how to improve his skills as a jinchuriki a lot ever since the fight with Yugito; it's the only training we don't usually do together. I still can't believe just how far he's willing to go to learn how to use the Fox's chakra; some of the things he's done I never would have expected out of him…_

After several weeks of his secret training, Naruto announced that he was finally ready to challenge TenTen to another sparring match, and the two had agreed to have their little contest at Training Ground 19. TenTen arrived first, and was surprised to note that many of the trees at the edges of the open, grassy training field seemed to have been completely stripped of their foliage. _This is where Naruto's been doing most of his training … could the fact that there are several trees with no leaves on them be some sort of effect of this new jutsu of his? What does it mean? It doesn't look like the trees were burned or damaged … it's almost like somebody just plucked off all the leaves one by one … but why would somebody do that?_

"Hey TenTen-chan!" Naruto shouted upon his arrival. "Ready to get your ass kicked? There's no way you're gonna beat my new awesome skills!" The boy paused, then looked the girl over and offered a discontented frown. "Hey, you've gotten even taller than me than you were before since the last time I saw you! Quit doing that! It's bad enough that you're taller than me already, you don't have to keep making it worse!"

"Maybe you just need to start growing faster." TenTen shot back with a grin. Ruffling the boy's already messy hair, the girl assured him. "Don't worry, I'm a year older than you, so if you just wait a bit I'm sure you'll catch up."

"Yeah, I'll probably end up being even taller than you in a couple years!" Naruto declared.

"Let's not get too crazy, short stuff." TenTen said with a smirk. "I'm always gonna be bigger than you." _Sometimes teasing Naruto is just too much fun …_

"I am so gonna kick your ass." Naruto muttered under his breath. "I'll kick it so hard that by the time I'm done you'll be shorter than I am!"

"That doesn't even make sense, Naruto." TenTen declared.

"Oh yeah?" The boy asked hotly. "Well … well I'm still gonna kick your ass anyway!"

"Nice comback." TenTen said dryly. The girl reached into her pouch of ninja tools and removed her sealing scrolls filled with practice weaponry. "You ready?"

"I was born ready." Naruto declared confidently.

"Then why did you need to practice like crazy for a month to get ready for this fight?" TenTen asked with a smirk.

"I … well … um …" Naruto stumbled. Failing to find an appropriate bit of banter to counter the girl, the young man finally just declared. "Screw it, let's fight already." _I really gotta work on coming up with badass things to say before the fight starts…_

Rather than waste time with a verbal response, the girl sent a handful of shuriken at him, hoping that the unexpected attack might force him to reveal whatever he had been up to for the last month. _This is Naruto I'm dealing with, so trying to anticipate what new trick he has up his sleeve is almost certainly not going to work; he's just too unpredictable. The best thing to do is pressure him into revealing it as soon as possible; that way I'll have more time to figure out what his new trick is and how to deal with it._

Unfortunately for the girl's plans, Naruto seemed to have improved his dodging skills along with developing whatever his new secret weapon was, and he managed to evade all the weapons without giving anything away. TenTen gradually increased the tempo of her attacks, but the boy was still weaving through the hail of kunai and shuriken without too much difficulty.

When it became clear that simple kunai and shuriken would not work, TenTen decided to take things to the next level. Mixed in with the next barrage of kunai was a group of several knives with thin metal wire strung between them. The wire was thin enough that it would be almost impossible for Naruto to see in time to dodge, and while the wires themselves would do no damage to the boy, they would tangle Naruto up badly enough to stop him from dodging her next attack and force him to reveal his new trick.

At first things went exactly as the girl anticipated; Naruto was so intent on dodging the kunai themselves that he did not even notice the wire strung between them until it was too late. However, instead of revealing his new trick the boy unleashed several shuriken of his own to counter the attack; while striking all of TenTen's weapons in mid air would have been impossible even for TenTen herself, it was easy to strike the net of wire strung between the knives. The thin wire snapped when struck by Naruto's shuriken, and TenTen's trap fell apart without capturing the boy.

Since explosive tags were not an option for a friendly sparring match and her wire net trick had not worked, TenTen decided it was time to unleash her best attack and see how Naruto dealt with it. If his new trick was as good as the boy seemed to think it was he would probably win the match, but by this point TenTen was so curious to find out what he was up to that losing a friendly sparring match was a small price to pay to get some answers. After practicing together for the better part of a year TenTen and Naruto had sparred enough times that wins and losses had stopped mattering to the girl a long time ago; when she did not even bother keeping track of a win-loss record losing one more match became fairly meaningless. Of course, that did not mean she planned to make things easy on Naruto, and she did have one more trick up her sleeve that might catch the boy off guard even if he could block her when she was using her best attack.

The girl removed a pair of weapon scrolls, and after running through the appropriate handseals tossed them both into the air. The two scrolls went up in parallel spirals, unrolling as they rose. When the scrolls reached the top of their flight path the girl leapt straight up between the two scrolls and began unsealing and hurling weapons at a lightning fast pace. No matter how much time Naruto had spent improving his dodging skills, there was simply no way he had gotten good enough to evade her Twin Rising Dragons attack; even Gai had to push himself to avoid taking any hits from the sheer number of thrown weapons the girl could unleash.

Naruto did not waste any time trying to dodge, and TenTen was gratified to see his hands quickly snap through an unfamiliar sequence of seals. _Now I'll finally see what you've been up to, Naruto_.

TenTen's eyes widened in surprise when the boy announced his jutsu. "Futon: Disruption Wave." The air around Naruto began whirling in a chaotic mass of conflicting air currents, and none of TenTen's weapons were able to get past the intense maelstrom the boy's jutsu had created. TenTen dropped back down to the ground, a look of frustration on her face as she viewed the results of her failed attack.

"Pretty awesome, isn't it?" Naruto asked once his jutsu ended. "It's still not perfect; according the scrolls I got from Kakashi-san once I get really good at it you'll barely even be able to tell it's there, but it's still good enough to block all of your attacks." The boy grinned, and then declared. "Looks like you're never gonna get to beat me again, doesn't it TenTen?"

"Naruto." The girl began, wearing a smile of her own. "Considering how many times you've told people not to underestimate you, I wouldn't have expected you to make that exact same mistake yourself." TenTen activated the chakra threads she had attached to most the weapons she had unleashed during her Twin Rising Dragons attack, and with a quick flick of her wrists sent them all rushing towards the boy once more.

"Whoa!" The boy cried out in surprise before frantically performing another jutsu. "Futon: Great Breakthrough!" A massive burst of wind erupted around Naruto, scattering TenTen's weapons an instant before they would have hit him. TenTen let the weapons fall to the ground and decided to wait the wind to die down before trying again. Hopefully the wind jutsu would not last too much longer; by this point her chakra stores were getting a little low since performing Twin Rising Dragons had taken up a lot of her energy and keeping chakra threads attached to every her small arsenal of weapons was not an easy task.

However, Naruto never gave her the chance to continue her attack, performing a third jutsu before his second faded. "Futon: Wind Bullet." A blast a compressed air slammed into TenTen, knocking the wind out of the girl and sending her flying to the ground; the blow also disrupted her concentration, snapping the chakra threads she had been maintaining on her weapons. The girl lifted a hand to signal that she was conceding the match, and took a few deep breaths before slowly returning to her feet.

"So that's what you were up to." TenTen declared once she caught her breath. "All that secret training was you learning wind manipulation and wind jutsu." The girl frowned in sudden confusion, and then demanded. "How did you learn to do of that in one month? Nature manipulation isn't easy learn even if you have a strong natural affinity for your element, and I know you hadn't even started on it a month ago. There's no way you could have learned how to use wind chakra and three different jutsu all in one month!"

"Actually, it's four jutsu so far." Naruto declared sheepishly. "I also know Vacuum Sphere. It's kinda like Wind Bullet, except smaller and nastier; it's not the sort of jutsu you'd use in a friendly sparring match." Noting that TenTen was looking impatient for an explanation at this sudden explosion in his learning speed, Naruto got to it. "Anyway, Kakashi-san decided to see what element I was good with to see if there were any jutsu I could learn to counter all your throwing weapons, and it turns out it was wind. So, at first it looked like it was gonna take a long time to learn how to use wind chakra, but then I was thinking one day that whenever a shadow clone goes away I find out anything it learned while it was around, so if I had a whole bunch of shadow clones working on learning to use wind chakra…"

"You could learn things that would take months in a matter of hours." TenTen finished. "Naruto, that's incredible!" The girl's mind reeled as she realized just how massive the potential for Shadow Clones as a training technique was. Considering how many he could create at once it would not take long before the sheer amount of cumulative experience the boy built up from that many clones made him, in terms of raw training time, the most experienced ninja in the entire world. "Naruto, you have to teach me how to use Shadow Clones! No, you have to tell the Hokage right away! If we started training all our ninjas like this then Konoha would get so far ahead of every other village that..."

"Nah, that wouldn't work." Naruto informed the girl. "When I asked Gai-sensei about that he said that pretty much nobody except a jinchuriki actually has enough chakra to use shadow clones like that; even Kakashi-san and the Hokage can't maintain the jutsu long enough to really make it useful for training and if they can't do it then nobody else is gonna be able to either."

"Oh." TenTen said, disappointed to hear that Naruto had not stumbled upon a brilliant trick to put Konoha at the top of the ninja world. "Well, I suppose if shadow clones could be used like that the Hokage would have figured it out a long time ago. I suppose it makes sense that even your training methods are so crazy that they only work for you."

"Yeah." Naruto agreed. "But Gai-sensei says it won't work for everything; for a lot of stuff I'll still have to learn just like everybody else."

"Well good, I don't want you turning into a super-elite ninja and leaving our team just yet." TenTen declared. "You can't leave me alone on the Team with Gai and Lee, or I'd go insane and either kill both of them or end up like Lee and start ranting about the power of youth." The two shared a laugh at that image before TenTen commented. "You know, when you said you were working on a new secret weapon I thought you might have finally managed to figure out how to use the Nine Tailed Fox's power."

Naruto's countenance darkened. "No, I still haven't had any luck with it." The boy's frustration with his lack of progress was obvious. "I know lots about what I can do, but I've got no freaking clue how I'm supposed to do it! I can't even manage to repeat all the stuff I could do in the fight with Yugito!" _Probably 'cause I don't remember much of the details of what happened, just that I was really, really pissed at her. I tried just remembering how pissed I was and seeing if that's what the trick was, but remembering it's not the same as when it actually happened._

"I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually." TenTen reassured him. "Like Gai-sensei's always saying, you can solve any problem with enough hard work and dedication."

"Yeah." The boy agreed uncertainly, before perking up and declaring more enthusiastically. "Yeah! Now that I've got this wind stuff down I'll bet I can figure out how to deal with this stupid Fox with no problems! I'm gonna go work on it right now! See you later, TenTen-chan; let's go get some ramen tonight!"

"Sounds good Naru … never mind, you've already run off can't hear anything I'm saying." TenTen chuckled as she watched the boy's rapidly receding form. "Always running around…" _Well I'll have plenty to keep me busy while he's working on the Fox; if I ever want to win another sparring match with Naruto I really need to work out some way of getting past his new wind chakra tricks…_

* * *

Naruto was quite certain that anybody who knew him from the Academy would have been very shocked to learn of his current activities; there were times when Naruto could hardly believe it himself. Even TenTen had been stunned when she found out where his efforts to gain a better understanding of his relationship with the Nine Tailed Fox had led him. It had all been the Hokage's idea, and Naruto continued to blame the crazy old man for his current suffering, and for placing him in this ridiculous situation to begin with. _Stupid, crazy old man…_

It had all started when, after weeks of trying on his own with no results, Naruto had gone to the Hokage in the hopes of getting some help on his jinchuriki training. The old man had been more than willing to help Naruto, but admitted that he personally knew nothing about how jinchuriki mastered the powers of their tailed beasts. However, the Hokage did give Naruto access to the records and writings of Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage and one of only four shinobi (Five if you counted the Rikudo Sage, but he was just a legend) known to have the ability to control the Tailed Beasts. If Konoha had any information that could be of use to Naruto in his quest to master the power of the Nine Tailed Fox, it would be in the First Hokage's writings.

Thus, circumstances had unexpectedly forced Naruto to become something of a scholar; the boy spent hours reading over dusty tomes and analyzing ancient scrolls in the hopes of finding some piece of information that might let him know where to start on his jinchuriki training. Naruto spent most of the time he had to spare after his daily training with Gai in the records room of the Hokage's tower. The room was cramped and filled with row upon row of shelves stacked with records along with four small tables meant for any visitors, one of which was permanently occupied by a clutter of Hashirama Senju's writings and Naruto's chaotic notes. Most people would have mistaken Naruto's study area for a disorganized mess, but Naruto insisted that there was actually an organized system in place, and his ability somehow to find whatever he needed in a matter of seconds made it hard to argue with his claim.

Taking a break from his studies to master wind chakra had been a welcome relief, but with that task done he had no excuse to put off the bookwork any longer. Unfortunately for the young jinchuriki, it was beginning to look like his quest for information would bear no fruit. The First Hokage had recorded no shortage of information on controlling Tailed Beasts, both for beasts roaming free and when they were confined within a jinchuriki, but that information was completely useless to anybody who lacked the kekkei genkai to use Mokuton jutsu.

Naruto had a brief surge of hope when he learned that the First Hokage's rival Madara Uchiha had a similar degree of control over Tailed Beasts, but the only information the First Hokage had about how Madara's control methods worked indicated that the sharingan was involved. Even if Naruto managed to get a sharingan similar to how Kakashi had (not terribly likely considering how few sharingan were left in the world after the Uchiha massacre), it would not do him any good since either Madara had never written down his secrets or the records had been destroyed at some point, likely due to the fact that Madara betrayed Konoha and the Uchiha clan.

However, with no better options available Naruto continued looking through the First Hokage's writings in the hopes of coming across something that could help him. Even though Hashirama wrote instructions for a non-jinchuriki using the Mokuton kekkei genkai to contain a Tailed Beast's power, there might be some hint of information that Naruto could use. It was a thin hope, but it was the only hope Naruto had. The boy was studying so intensely he was barely even aware of his surroundings, and he remained oblivious to the various other people who occasionally drifted in and out of the records room on their own tasks. He didn't even notice when his former Academy sensei Iruka Umino dropped by the records room, only to spend several minutes staring at the oddity that was a quiet, studious Naruto Uzumaki. _That can't be Naruto … maybe its somebody else just transformed to look like him ... but why would someone transform into Naruto, and then act so completely un-Naruto-like?_

Right as this thought was percolating within the Chunin's mind, Naruto let out a shout of frustration and slammed his current book shut. "Stupid First Hokage! Why won't you tell me anything that's useful to somebody who can't freaking use your freaking Mokuton jutsu! Jeez, what an idiot … when I become Hokage I'll make sure people can actually use all the awesome jutsu I'm gonna invent!"

Iruka chuckled gave a resigned shake of his head. _No, that's definitely the real Naruto_. He briefly considered approaching the boy, but decided that anything important enough to make Naruto spend so much time reading and studying was also probably too important to distract him from. Iruka finished his business quickly and quietly, and then left the boy to continue his work in peace.

Naruto had been reading through the First Hokage's writings for a couple hours and was just about ready to give up again when the Third Hokage sought out the young jinchuriki and politely but firmly asking the two other people who were in the records room at the time to leave him alone with the boy. "I thought you would be back again sooner or later, Naruto." The Hokage said, announcing his presence to the boy. "Several people wanted your little study area cleared, but I didn't think you would appreciate the disruption to all your notes." The old man frowned and added. "Still, after you went a month without coming back I was starting to wonder if you'd given up on finding anything useful in Hashirama's papers." _Perhaps I should tell Naruto about Tenzo … no, Tenzo lacks the chakra capacity to use Hashirama's Tailed Beast controlling jutsu on the Nine Tailed Fox, so telling Naruto would just give him hope, then crush it. Tenzo cannot help Naruto unless we find some way to enhance the strength of his jutsu._

"Nah, I was just taking a break from all these stupid books while I learned some new jutsu." Naruto answered wearily. "I kinda hoped I'd find something I missed before after I spent a bit of time away from all these dumb books and scrolls, but it doesn't look like it's gonna happen." The boy frowned at his collection of documents, and then looked back up at the Hokage with sudden interest. "Hey, I just remembered! A while back you said you were gonna find out if there were any other jinchuriki that might be able to help me. You get anything back on that?"

Hiruzen sighed and shook his head. "Unfortunately Suna and Taki's jinchuriki are in no condition to help you, and those are the only villages allied with Konoha that currently have jinchuriki."

Naruto grimaced and said. "Yeah, from what Yugito said Suna's been trying to kill theirs for years, so he's probably kinda pissed off by now."

"The Kazekage provided no details on the boy's condition, but from the rumors we've heard the One Tailed Tanuki's current jinchuriki is dangerously unstable; frequent assassination attempts could certainly have that effect." The Hokage frowned in disapproval, and then added. "Taki's jinchuriki lost control of the Seven Horned Beetle during an incident within the village several years ago, and has been living in isolation ever since. Even if she could be contacted, if she can't control her own Tailed Beast I doubt she could help you."

"Yeah, probably not." Naruto agreed reluctantly. "Say, what about the jinchuriki from villages we're not allied with? I mean, even if we're not really friends we might be able to find out something from them."

"The Four Tails and Five Tails are in Iwa, and it is unlikely the Tsuchikage would even consider helping us for anything less than a reversal of the Third Great Shinobi War." The Hokage began. "The Six Tails jinchuriki has been missing for quite some time. As for the Two Tails and Eight Tails ..."

"Kumo." The boy answered flatly.

"Indeed." The Hokage answered grimly. "Several years ago Kumo offered to train you exchange for the secrets of several of Konoha's jutsu and kekkei genkai. I doubt their price has grown cheaper, and considering Kumo's recent actions we can hardly trust them to honor any bargain even if the price they offered were more reasonable." The Hokage gave a mirthless smile, and added. "A few days after Kumo's chief negotiator conveyed the Raikage offer to train you the diplomat was killed while trying to steal the Hyuuga clan's kekkei genkai."

Naruto had not known about that incident, but he nodded in agreement with the sentiment the story conveyed. "Yeah, there's no way we can trust Kumo to keep any deal we make with them." A thoughtful look passed over the boy's face, and he asked. "Hey, what about the Three Tails? You never said anything about its host."

"The Three Tails is also not an option." The Hokage said simply. _I hoped Naruto would not notice I left him out…_

"Why not?" Naruto inquired. "Who's its host?"

"The Fourth Mizukage, Yagura." Hiruzen answered reluctantly.

"Really?" Naruto said, enthusiasm clear on his face. "A jinchuriki Kage? That's awesome! Wait … where have I heard of him before…" Naruto's eyes widened in sudden glee. "Of course! The Fourth Mizukage is one of the four ninjas who can completely control a Tailed Beast! He could probably teach me all kinds of neat tricks for dealing with the Fox, right?"

"I would rather have you be trained by Killer Bee." The Hokage declared sternly. "Kiri has acquired an extremely unsavory reputation under the Fourth Mizukage's rule. From everything we have heard their practices are barbaric; there is a reason many people call it Bloody Mist Village now instead of Hidden Mist Village"

"Oh yeah, I remember hearing about that stuff; always sounded kinda nuts to me." Naruto frowned in confusion and asked. "Hey, isn't Kiri supposed to be, like, really secret and stuff? I thought they didn't ever actually let outsiders even come into the village, right? I mean, if nobody ever gets to go there, how do we know what it's actually like in there?"

"There have been reliable reports from people who once resided there." The Hokage explained to the boy.

"People who used to live there?" Naruto asked, confusion coloring his face for a moment before comprehension dawned. "You're talking about rogue ninjas, aren't you? Those're the only people who'd have left a closed off ninja village."

"Yes." The Hokage responded.

"Well why should we believe them?" Naruto demanded. "I mean, they're rogue ninjas, of course they're gonna things sucked so bad they had no choice but to leave! I bet they're all just assholes who are pissed off that a jinchuriki managed to become their Kage, and now they're going around making up all kinds of crazy stories so everyone will think he's some kinda monster. Even after he was good enough to become their Kage, those guys refuse to see Yagura as anything more than monster." The boy slammed a fist down on his reading table in sudden anger. "What a buncha jerks!"

The old man gave the mental equivalent of a weary groan. He had been worried that Naruto might take a dangerous interest in a jinchuriki who managed to obtain the Kage rank Naruto aspired to, but Hiruzen had not anticipated just how badly things would go. "Naruto." The Hokage said, trying to calm the agitated boy. "You need to understand that we have every reason to believe that these reports are accurate."

"Well of course you would think that!" The boy snapped, sudden bitterness filling his voice. "After all, the guy's a jinchuriki! He's gotta be a lunatic who goes around killing people just for the fun of it!"

"Naruto!" Hiruzen snapped, offended by the implications of the boy's remark. "This is not a case of prejudice against jinchuriki, there is very reliable evidence that the stories emerging from Kiri are accurate."

"I don't believe it." Naruto maintained stubbornly. "I mean, it's all based on stuff you got from people who really hated the guy. It's probably just a bunch of bullshit." The boy took a moment to gather his nerve, and the declared. "I wanna go there and meet him."

"Absolutely not." The Hokage declared. _Naruto is too naïve to understand what he would be dealing with in Kiri; he can not believe that the horrors stories coming out of that village could possibly be true, so he attributes them to hatred against the jinchuriki Mizukage. It rarely shows, but the bitterness many in Konoha have shown him has left marks on the boy; the thought that even if he achieves his dream of becoming my successor the people of Konoha would still hate him is frightening him enough to make him irrational._

"Give me one reason besides all those stupid made-up stories that we shouldn't go talk to the guy." Naruto demanded. "Yeah, Kiri's kinda quiet and creepy, but they're not all nasty and backstabby like Kumo is, so we can probably work out some sort of deal with them, and he's the only other guy in the world who can teach me all the stuff I need to know about being a jinchuriki. I'm gonna do whatever it takes to find out how to use the Fox's chakra; otherwise there's no way I'll ever be able to protect my friends or achieve my dreams! I know Kiri doesn't usually let outsiders in, but I bet since I'm a jinchuriki the Mizukage would at least be willing to listen to what I want."

_Perhaps I should have just lied to Naruto when he asked who the host of the Three Tails was. No … he probably would have discovered the lie eventually considering his interest in jinchuriki, and then his trust in me would be badly damaged. In his current mood he might just run off to Kiri by himself if I do not find some way to calm him; but what can I do? Not even Konoha's ANBU can infiltrate Kiri so we do not have any hard evidence of what is happening there, and Naruto would not believe reports based on hearsay and information gathered from rogue ninjas who have escaped the village. He might even be right that some of the reports are exaggerated; rogue ninja from Konoha certainly offer very skewed accounts of my own village. Besides, in all likelihood Naruto and his comrades will not even be able to get into Kiri, let along meet with the Mizukage. And, if by some chance Naruto is actually right…_

"Very well, Naruto." The Hokage conceded. "I will authorize a special mission to Kiri to make an effort to contact the Mizukage in person. However, in exchange I want you to give me your word that you will abide by several conditions."

"Alright!" The boy agreed immediately.

"First," The Hokage began. "You will obey any orders your sensei gives immediately and without hesitation or discussion; if Gai believes that the mission has become too dangerous and the team must withdraw to Konoha for your own safety, you will not argue with him, nor will you attempt to continue the mission without his permission or do anything else except follow his orders. Understood?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Naruto declared, giving the old man the rare honor of addressing him with full, formal respect instead of his usual casual tone. _He's doing me a pretty big favor, so I probably oughta be a little more respectful than usual._

"Second, due to the high potential risk of this mission you will not be operating alongside your fellow genin from Team Gai; you will be accompanied by two other jonin of my choosing, whose orders you will obey absolutely."

"No way!" Naruto flatly refused. "TenTen-chan and Lee are my friends, and we always go on missions together. I'm not gonna leave them behind!"

"Then you will not be going." The Hokage informed him.

"What if it was just me and TenTen?" Naruto suggested reluctantly. _I don't wanna leave Bushy Brows behind either, but if I can only take one of them…_

"This is not up for negotiation." Hiruzen declared sternly. "Shinobi operate in four-man cells, not six-man units. If anything were to happen during mission Gai and the other jonin would not be able to protect three genin. In fact, it is probably best if you tell your other teammates as little as possible about this mission to avoid any potential complications."

"Fine." Naruto reluctantly agreed, already dreading TenTen's reaction when she found out she would not be participating in the mission. After a few moments of silence another potential issue occurred to the boy. "Um … what if Gai-sensei gives me one order, and these other jonin give me a different one?" Naruto asked. "'Cause, I mean, you did kinda say I have to obey them both…"

"Gai will be the team leader, so his orders take precedence." The Hokage answered.

"That's fine with me." _Good, I'd rather have Gai-sensei running things than some other person I don't really know._

"And the final condition," The Hokage announced. "If you wish to perform this mission, you will forfeit half of your mission pay from now until the time you make chunin."

"What?!" Naruto shouted "Why? You don't need to take away my money like that!"

"Half of a genin's pay is substantially less than the normal commission price for an S-ranked mission." Hiruzen told the boy with a smile. "This quest of yours to meet the Mizukage will force me to commit three of my jonin to supporting you; some degree of compensation for lost revenue is in order." _More importantly, if you sacrifice something for this mission it will help you understand the mission's gravity, and appreciate what this decision might cost, and it gives me a chance to how serious you really are about going to Kiri. Well, that and the fact that if I charge you for this mission then you won't think you can demand special missions from me whenever you want._

"But … but what if I'm stuck as a genin for a long time?" Naruto asked.

"I believe your sensei plans to enter you in the Chunin Exams occurring five months from now." The Hokage informed him. "As long as you perform well you should be able to advance, and being able to earn full pay again will give you an extra incentive to succeed." _If he masters the power of the Nine Tailed Fox he should have no troubles with the Chunin Exams, and from what Gai and Kakashi have told me even without the Fox he will be a very formidable candidate by the time the Chunin Exams arrive._

"I … well … alright." Naruto reluctantly agreed. "I can't believe you're stealing my money though. Crazy old man. But if that's what it'll take, then that's what I'll do."

"Very well. Be ready to leave for Kiri by first light tomorrow." The Hokage instructed the boy. "You will meet Gai and the rest of your temporary team at the main gates."

"Gotcha! Thanks for the mission, Hokage-sama, even if you making me follow a bunch of stupid rules and stealing my money to pay for it." _Having to put up with all these rules and not getting paid as much as I used to will totally be worth it if I can finally find a way to get all this jinchuriki stuff figured out. Now I just have to figure out how to tell TenTen-chan and Lee they're gonna be left behind_…

* * *

"No." TenTen declared simply, stating the single word as if it were an absolute edict. Lee did not add anything else, but from his posture and the way he was looking at Naruto it was clear which side of the argument he was going to be on.

"Hey, it wasn't my idea." Naruto declared in his own defense as the trio entered Ichiraku Ramen. "If it was up to me I'd have you guys on the mission, but the Hokage said that it was just gonna be me and Gai-sensei and a couple other jonin."

"Why?" Lee asked as he took the seat on Naruto's left side while TenTen sat on his right. "We are your teammates. If you and Gai-sensei are on a mission we should be there as well, fighting alongside you."

"Yeah, but the Hokage said it was too dangerous for you guys, that's why he's got me teamed up with a bunch of jonin." Naruto answered. Half a second after the words left his mouth he realized that he probably should have worded things differently if he wanted to persuade his teammates to stay behind with no trouble. _Telling TenTen and Bushy Brows that my mission's so dangerous I'll need three jonin keeping an eye on me probably wasn't such a hot idea; now they'll wanna come more than ever._

"If the mission is that dangerous surely you should be have your comrades fighting alongside you." Lee answered. "Six ninja are better than four, and our teamwork is excellent; we could fight at your side more effectively than a jonin you have never worked with before."

"Yeah, but the Hokage said that the jonin wouldn't be able to protect you guys if anything went wrong." Naruto said, only to curse his own thoughtlessness a moment later. _TenTen hates it when people treat her like she's weak or she can't take care of herself._

"Lee and I are shinobi just like you; we don't need to be protected." TenTen snapped, glaring at Naruto. "What is this mission you're going on anyway?" The girl demanded. "You haven't really told us any of the details."

Conversation came to a brief end when their ramen arrived, and Naruto focused on eating steadily so he would have an excuse to avoid answering TenTen's question. However, even after the boy had consumed four bowls of the best food in the world TenTen was still looking at him expectantly, and the boy admitted to himself that no amount of delaying was likely to make the girl forget her question. "Yeah, the Hokage said I really shouldn't tell you guys anything about this mission." Naruto admitted reluctantly.

TenTen casually glanced around the ramen bar, and then leaned in close to Naruto and muttered. "Alright … but the Hokage isn't here right now, is he?"

"TenTen!" The boy yelped in surprise. "You can't … I'm not gonna disobey a direct from the Hokage! I mean, I think it's a stupid order and all, but he still told me not to say anything so that's what I'm gonna do." _If I don't do what the old man says he'd probably cancel the mission on me, and finally managing to figure out how I'm supposed to use the Nine Tailed Fox is way too important to mess up._

"Well, you can at least give me a little hint." The girl suggested, hoping that she could manage to wheedle enough information out of Naruto to figure things out if he would not just tell her directly what the mission was. "It must be a really important mission after all." _Maybe I can get him to slip up and give away more than he should if I feed his ego a bit; Naruto always likes being praised and acknowledge for his ninja skills._

"Nope." Naruto said, shaking his head vigorously before shooting TenTen a cheeky grin. "Not gonna fall for that this time." _I kinda had to get used to keeping stuff from her when I was figuring out how to use wind chakra, so I'm pretty good at figuring out all her tricks for getting info out of me._

"It was worth a shot." TenTen declared, shrugging philosophically. _When I first met him Naruto would have given up the information for a kind word or a bowl of ramen … he's gotten a lot cagier ever since that run-in with Yugito. _"You will at least let me and Lee see you off at the gate, right?"

"'Course I will." Naruto agreed. _That coulda gone a lot worse; TenTen's taking this a lot better than I thought she would._

"Do you know who the other jonin on your team will be, Naruto?" Lee asked curiously. "You mentioned Gai-sensei would be involved, but who will the other two be?"

"Dunno." Naruto answered with a shrug. "The old man's picking them. I kinda hope Kakashi-san might be one of them since he's the only other jonin I really know, even if he is a bit of a weirdo pervert. I just hope he and Gai-sensei don't spend all their time constantly doing all sorts of crazy stupid challenges; I think Gai-sensei cuts down on that kinda stuff when things get really serious, so maybe it won't be too bad."

"Well, Gai-sensei is Konoha's best taijutsu user, and Kakashi is the best at ninjutsu thanks to his sharingan." TenTen declared, frowning in thought. "A genjutsu specialist would kind of make sense for the third person, but Konoha hasn't had any really good genjutsu users for a while. Or at least, none of the ones we have are very prominent."

"Why not?" Naruto asked. "I mean, I'm not that good at genjutsu, but you'd think there would be other people who'd wanna get really good at it."

"Well, a lot of Konoha's best genjutsu users were in the Uchiha clan since the sharingan is a very powerful tool for genjutsu users." TenTen responded. "And before that several of our best genjutsu users died in the Third Great Shinobi War."

"So that's why we don't really have anybody who's really good with genjutsu." Naruto said, nodding vigorously. "Makes sense I guess; kinda hard to get people who are real good at it when all the folks who oughta be teaching them keep dying and stuff. Hmm … in that case maybe we'll get somebody with an awesome kekkei genkai or something." The boy's eyes widened as a sudden thought occurred to him. "It'd be really awesome if there was someone who could use Mokuton jutsu, but that was kinda the First Hokage's thing and I've never heard of anybody else with it."

"Many of Konoha's clans have very powerful ninja with unique jutsu." Lee pointed out. "Perhaps one of them will have skills uniquely suited to whatever Naruto's mission is."

"Yeah, that'd make a lot of sense." Naruto agreed before finishing off his last bowl of ramen. "Well, I probably need to start getting all my crap together; the Hokage said I'd be leaving at first light. I'll see you guys at the gates if you still wanna say bye one last time before I'm gone!" Naruto trotted off towards his apartment, looking back over his shoulder to wave goodbye to his friends.

_No idea what Naruto's up to, but at least I know when and where he'll be leaving. That's a start…_ Once Naruto was safely out of earshot, TenTen turned to her remaining teammate and asked, "Lee, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Are you thinking we should run ten extra laps around Konoha too?" The boy asked uncertainly.

"Never mind." TenTen responded, a hint of annoyed frustration in her voice. _I swear, sometimes Lee's almost as bad as Naruto…_

"You're right, ten laps is not nearly enough." Lee said, misinterpreting the reason for her displeasure with his suggestion. "We should do at least twenty …"

TenTen sighed.

"What if we went up to fifty laps?" Lee asked hopefully.

* * *

**A/N:** Some of you will be disappointed but perhaps not surprised to learn that I probably will not be able to provide detailed responses to reviews any more. It was easy to do early on when I was only getting a couple reviews, but replying to the 20 or so reviews that came in since I posted the last chapter would take up too much time I could spend writing the fic instead. I do value the feedback; constructive criticism tells me what needs improving, and even a short "Nice fic, write moar" comment provides a bit of encouragement no author minds getting, so please do keep reviewing.


	8. Realization

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Naruto

* * *

While he still was rather unhappy about the fact that Hokage had ordered him to leave TenTen and Lee behind, Naruto had to admit that he was rather excited about this mission. Even if it was really just a glorified diplomatic visit he was pretty sure everyone else was gonna go nuts when they heard that Naruto Uzumaki had been a ninja less than a year and was already working with jonin teams on classified missions that came directly from the Hokage himself. Maybe people would even start thinking that if Naruto was working with a jonin team he must be a jonin as well. It was a crazy idea of course; while Konoha had begun the training process younger and fast-tracked promising students to jonin rank during the Third Great Shinobi War and the immediate aftermath of the attack by the Nine Tailed Fox, in a time of relative peace there was no way a boy Naruto's age would reach jonin rank. The only reason Naruto had even gotten into the Academy two years earlier than students were normally accepted was that he was a jinchuriki, though the boy had not known that at the time. _Oh well, even if nobody thinks I got a super-promotion they'll still think I must be pretty badass to be working with a bunch of jonin, and that's good enough._

When Naruto arrived at Konoha's gates he was not particularly surprised to see that Gai was already there and passing the time with an impromptu exercise routine. The boy would have joined his sensei, but when Gai caught sight of the boy he briefly halted his workout to warn the boy off. "You will want to be fresh and full of youthful energy when we start, Naruto. I intend to set a very brisk pace for this mission."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Naruto responded eagerly. "You probably wanna go at, like, supper-fast jonin speed or something, right? I'll probably have to run as fast as I can just to not get left completely behind!" _This is so awesome!_

"Well, it will not be quite that extreme, but you will need all of your youthful strength to keep up with us." Gai declared, favoring Naruto with a smile. "Once my eternal rival arrives we will depart; until then perhaps you should introduce yourself our final team member since I do not believe the two of you have met before." Gai indicated a dark-haired woman leaning against the wall of a nearby building who was watching the boy and his sensei with interest.

"Hi! I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto called out enthusiastically, running up to the woman and giving her a quick once-over. _Kinda weird outfit, but then I'm on a team with two guys who dress in green spandex, so who'm I to judge what other people wear? Wait a minute … her eyes … does she have sharingan?_ The boy looked more closely, and then gave a minute shake of his head. _Nah, they're just normal red eyes, no tomoes in them like Kakashi-san's sharingan. She looks kinda familiar … oh right, she was one of the instructors at the academy a couple years ago, right when I first got in, but she got promoted up to special jonin before I ever had a class with her._

"Kurenai Yuhi." The woman introduced herself, appraising the boy almost as frankly as he had investigated her. "I've heard quite a bit about you Naruto; I'm curious to see if the rumors match the reality." The woman lowered her voice and added. "Your sensei speaks quite highly of you, and if this mission is any indication it seems even the Hokage has taken an interest in you."

"Yeah, I don't wanna brag too much but I think I'm turning out to be a pretty awesome ninja." Naruto declared in a rather poor attempt at false modesty. Regarding the jonin with budding enthusiasm, the boy gushed. "So … so anyway Kurenai-san, I bet you must have all kinds of awesome ninja skills, right? I mean, you are a jonin after all. So, like, out of all your awesome skills which one's the awesomest?"

Kurenai gave the boy an amused smile, and answered. "Well, I suppose you could say that my 'awesomest' skill would be genjutsu. My ninjutsu and taijutsu are also quite solid; I couldn't beat Kakashi or Gai in their chosen fields, but nobody gets promoted up to full jonin rank without possessing a diverse and well-rounded set of ninja skills."

"Yeah, it would kinda suck if you only had one real trick to use and you ran into someone that it didn't work on." Naruto declared. _So TenTen-chan was right, we're getting a genjutsu user to go with Gai-sensei and Kakashi-san. Guess that makes sense; this way we'll be ready for just about anything._ "Anyway, I'm really good with shadow clones, and I just figured out how to do awesome stuff with wind chakra. My taijutsu's pretty good too thanks to all the work I've done with Gai-sensei." The boy flushed slightly before reluctantly confessing to the genjutsu specialist. "Um … I'm not all that great at genjutsu though; I've got the basics down, but I haven't really worked on learning much beyond that, and I still suck at breaking out of them."

"Most jinchuriki have little interest in genjutsu." Kurenai told the boy. "Genjutsu is more about intelligence and mental agility than chakra reserves or combat power; there is no reason to specialize in field where the advantages you gain by being a jinchuriki will never come into play."

"Yeah, that's kinda what I thought too." Naruto responded, nodding vigorously in the hopes that the jonin would believe he had seriously considered improving his genjutsu skills. "I'm pretty good with the transformation jutsu though." _I might've gotten better if TenTen hadn't threatened to never buy me ramen again after I told her about my Sexy Jutsu idea; it seems like a harmless prank to me, but she really didn't see the humor in it. Then again, she had a point that I'd be kinda weirded out if she had a jutsu that turned her into a naked guy…_

Any further musing on the subject was interrupted by the arrival of the girl who had been subject of Naruto's thoughts, along with their other teammate. "Hey TenTen-chan, Bushy Brows!" Naruto called out, waving eagerly to his two comrades.

TenTen and Lee made their way to the boy's side, looking at Kurenai with undisguised curiosity. Naruto spared her the trouble of making an introduction by relaying most the information she'd given about herself, though with a great deal more energy and volume than the jonin had used. _So this is Gai's genin team? I can still hardly to believe that once the current crop of academy students graduate next month I'll have a team of my own just like this._ Kurenai's eyes took in Lee's haircut and outfit, frowning as she noted that the boy seemed to be imitating his sensei as much as possible. _Well, hopefully they won't be exactly like Gai's students._

"You did remember to pack all your tools, right Naruto?" TenTen asked. "And food, you'll be gone for a while so you'll need some trail rations. What about some spare clothes? If anything happened to your jumpsuit and you didn't have anything else to wear then…"

"Jeez, I'm fine TenTen-chan." The boy grumbled. _She's doing her crazy nurturing thing again, I better just put up with it or I'll hurt her feelings._ While Naruto continued to grumble that he was fine, he did not strenuously object to TenTen's barrage of questions and demands, assuring her that he was absolutely, completely, one hundred percent prepared for his mission. Naruto's resolve to tolerate TenTen's well-intentioned but annoying actions broke when she tried to get into his pouch of ninja tools to make sure he had not forgotten anything. "I didn't forget anything, TenTen-chan! Why d'you gotta bug me so much anyways?"

"Sorry Naruto." The girl apologized absently, not sounding the slightest bit abashed. "Oh, you should probably have a couple explosive tags, just in case. If you didn't remember to pack any then I've got a couple right here…" The girl did not even wait to hear Naruto's response before she began reaching back into her pouch of ninja tools, presumably for the tags in question.

"I already told you, like two or three times that I've got enough of everything!" Naruto whined. Naruto desperately looked to the rest of the people to find someone to save him from the girl's smothering mothering, but there was no help to be found. Lee and Gai seemed occupied in an intense discussion of Lee's training regimen for the time while Gai was away, while Kurenai was just watching the proceedings with an amused smile. Naruto tried to use eye movements and body language to send a non-verbal signal the jonin that he desperately needed her help, but all that seemed to accomplish was making her quickly cover her mouth to prevent herself from laughing at the boy's plight. _Man, women can be really cruel sometimes…_

Rescue finally came in the form of a listless declaration of, "Hey guys, now that I'm here we should probably get started on the mission." Naruto had never been more grateful to see Kakashi Hatake, and was especially delighted that the odd-eyed man had turned up exactly on time instead of being incredibly late. If he had to put with three hours of crazy, clingy, nurturing TenTen because of Kakashi Naruto might have ended up finally snapping like Lee had and turning into another copy of Gai.

"I think we could spare a minute or two for TenTen and Naruto to finish saying their goodbyes." Kurenai suggested.

Kakashi turned a lazy eye on the two genin, and then gave a slight shrug, taking in the boy's pleading look. "Well, I suppose we can give them however long they need." Even with the mask covering his face, Naruto was almost certain that Kakashi was smiling.

TenTen immediately began bombarding Naruto with several dozen variations of "be careful" while the boy glared at the two jonin, which only seemed to amuse them even more. _I know I pretty much stopped the prankster thing a while ago, but if they're gonna prank me then I've gotta find some way to get back at them for this. Jeez, it's gonna take a crowbar to pry TenTen-chan offa me at this rate!_

Just when it looked like the boy had finally managed to make his escape from TenTen after stopping her from trying to check his pouch of ninja tools once again, the girl suddenly and unexpectedly threw her arms around him in a hug. "I … wha …" Naruto began blushing furiously, too shocked and embarrassed by the unexpected show of affection to even consider hugging her back.

When TenTen released the boy he noticed that she was blushing slightly herself. "Um …" She muttered uncertainly. "Just … just be careful, alright?"

"Um … yeah, sure." Naruto said softly. _Why'd she go and hug me all of a sudden? I mean, we're just friends, but if she starts hugging me and stuff people will think we're, like boyfriend and girlfriend, when we're really just friends. Wait … what if TenTen likes me … like that?_ Naruto was not entirely certain what to think of the prospect that his best friend might have more than friendly feelings for him, but the first two thoughts that sprang to mind were that the prospect was confusing and terrifying.

Fortunately for the off-balance boy, TenTen was clearly as flustered as he was so he would not be required to produce any answers immediately. Much to Naruto's relief his exchange of farewells with Lee was short and nicely uncomplicated. "See you later, Bushy Brows; when I get back we gotta have a spar so I can show you the awesome new jutsu I've learned!"

"I look forward to it, Naruto-kun." Lee answered with genuine enthusiasm. Lee and Naruto's friendship might not be as deeply developed and complicated as the one between Naruto and TenTen, but in the jinchuriki's opinion there was a lot to be said for a friendship that was no more complicated than a bit of friendly competition and a shared love of training and developing new skills. At least Lee never got all crazy on him or did hugged and left him all confused about whether they were still just friends.

"Gai." Kurenai spoke up as Naruto and the jonin made their way out the gates. "About the matter we were discussing before Naruto arrived … I know it would normally be something you should address, but if it should become an issue I would appreciate the opportunity to handle the matter myself. I believe that my skills could address the matter in a thorough and uniquely effective manner."

"Huh?" Naruto asked curiously. "What're you guys talking about? Is it anything that I can help with Kurenai-san?"

"Oh, it's nothing important Naruto." Kurenai declared dismissively. "It's quite possible nothing will even happen." _No reason to worry the boy unnecessarily_.

TenTen and Lee watched Naruto and his new companions make their way out of Konoha and off to whatever their secret mission was. Once they were out of earshot, TenTen declared rather defensively. "I only hugged him to get that tracking tag into his pouch; we were running out of time and I had to do something or he would have gotten away from us. There was nothing romantic about it."

"Of course not, TenTen-san." Lee agreed guilelessly.

"Really, there wasn't!" TenTen insisted stridently. "I don't like Naruto that way, we're just friends."

"I know you are TenTen-san." Lee said simply.

"Naruto's not even the type of guy I'm attracted to." TenTen continued. "And he's too young for me as well. There's just no way I could possibly be interested in him…"

_Why does TenTen-san keep insisting she is not interested in Naruto when I have already agreed with her?_ Lee wondered.

* * *

TenTen and Lee tracked Naruto and his jonin escorts for two days, by which point the genin had determined from the group's direction that their destination must be in Kiri. So far, a mixture of luck, skill, and caution had kept the duo from being detected by the jonin they were tailing, though there had been several close calls. Lee nearly had a panic attack when it seemed like Gai was looking directly at their position for several seconds yesterday, but given the man's lack of reaction it appeared that had not noticed the pair genin trailing his team.

"TenTen-san." Lee suggested hesitantly as the two ate a quick breakfast of cold trail rations in a small clearing. Fire Country was the most heavily forested of the five great nations; the warm, temperate climate for which the land was named encouraged tress to grow very large very quickly and small clearings like the one the two genin currently occupied were often used as campsites. A quick look over the area revealed the remains of several somewhat recent campfires, indicating that previous travelers had used this very spot for their own camps. "I think that perhaps we should consider turning back when we reach the borders of Fire Country. I understand your concerns, but we would not want to interfere with Naruto's mission."

"We're not interfering, Lee." TenTen told the boy. "Naruto is our teammate; we should be on this mission with him, not left behind in Konoha."

"The Hokage does not seem to agree with you." Lee pointed out.

"The Hokage doesn't know either of us or how good our ninja skills are." TenTen countered. "We can take care of ourselves; we wouldn't be getting in the way, nor would we need the jonin to protect us. Naruto probably just said something foolish to make the Hokage think we weren't capable of taking care of ourselves, or maybe he just misinterpreted what the Hokage really meant." The girl sighed, and miserably added, "I can't just stay back in Konoha and do nothing while Naruto's going out on a dangerous mission where he might get hurt or even killed. I have to help him; I have to be there if he needs me."

"TenTen-san," Lee said earnestly. "I know you well enough to understand that one of the things you truly hate is when others view you as weak or incapable of holding your own as a shinobi. If you hate being seen as weak and incapable so greatly, then why do you look at Naruto that way?"

"Huh?" Confusion was clear on TenTen's face. "What're you talking about Lee?"

The boy was silent for a moment as he gathered his thoughts, and then said. "Gai-sensei once told me that the hardest part of being a sensei was not training us to be great ninjas, or any the battles we fight. The hardest task that he ever faced as a sensei was accepted that he had to place his students in danger, that as his students grew he would have to rely upon us to take care of ourselves rather than constantly attempt to protect us on the battlefield. Gai-sensei's instincts told him to protect us and keep us safe from the dangers of the ninja world, but in time he realized that the only way we would ever grow into brilliant shinobi would be if we faced those dangers on our own."

TenTen gazed at Lee, pondering the brief tale he had conveyed to her. "I think I understand what you're trying to say, Lee." The girl sighed, and reluctantly admitted. "I worry about Naruto. The thought that he might be hurt or killed … I just can't stand it. I have to be there if he needs me; to protect him, to help him, to keep him safe. I remember when we were both still in the Academy, when he was the worst student in the class and I somehow wound up becoming his tutor…"

"But he has grown since then, TenTen-san." Lee told her. "Naruto is strong; even if I take off my weights he usually wins our sparring matches thanks to his ninjutsu, and you told that in your last sparring match he defeated you quite easily by using his new skills with wind chakra. He is not the same Naruto you had to guide through basic lessons at the Academy."

TenTen stared in the general direction of Naruto's camp and sighed. "You're right Lee; Naruto has gotten a lot stronger. I already knew that, I've known it since the fight with Yugito … but I don't think I ever really, truly accepted it. In a lot of ways, I still think of him as the same goofy little idiot who couldn't figure out how to throw a kunai or use a clone jutsu without my help."

"Your head knows that Naruto is strong and capable, but your heart had not accepted that he no longer needed you to help and protect him." Lee said sagely.

"Lee!" The girl snapped at her friend. "How many times do I have to say that my heart has nothing to do with Naruto? We. Are. Just. Friends."

"TenTen-san," Lee began. "We are also friends, correct?"

"Of course we are Lee." The girl responded immediately.

"But, if I were the one going on this mission instead of Naruto, would you be so concerned for my wellbeing that you would be out in the woods following me against orders?" Lee asked bluntly.

"No." TenTen reluctantly confessed after taking a few moments to consider the question. "I wouldn't." The girl sighed, and continued, struggling to find the right words to articulate her feelings. "Naruto is … special. He just … I don't know. You know what he's like, how he's just so open and honest, how you can take one look at him and tell how much he cares. I was the first real friend he ever had, and every time I look at him I can see how much that means to him. How can I just be anything like a normal friend to him when he's that devoted to me?"

TenTen gave a humorless chuckle and continued. "It's funny, but … as scared as I am of him going into battle without me, a part of me hates fighting alongside him too, because I know one day's he's gonna do something stupid like jump in front of a kunai that's aimed at me or throw himself on top of an explosive tag to save my life. And the thought that he would do something like that for me … well … it scares the shit out of me." The girl paused, and admitted "What's even scarier is that I'd probably do the same thing for him."

"You love him." Lee declared, stating the words as if they were a simple, incontrovertible and self-evident fact.

"Yeah, I guess I do." TenTen agreed, a smile on her face. "But I don't think I'm in love with him. I mean, there's none of the usual romantic stuff with us, we're just … we get along, we like being around each other, but we don't do any of the things couple are supposed to do. I don't spend hours daydreaming about kissing him or marrying him and having his babies … but I do know that I want to be there, right by his side. I know that whatever he faces, the challenges, the joys, the sadness, all of it … I want to be there to see every bit of it."

Silence drifted over the campsite as Lee considered TenTen's words and the girl continued pondering her unique relationship with Naruto Uzumaki. The two genin focused on eating their rations to avoid further conversation, quickly finishing the simple meal. "So, do we continue on, or turn back?" Lee asked once the two began to pack up their small collection of camping gear.

"Let's keep going." TenTen decided. "I'd still kind of like to keep an eye on Naruto and the rest of them just in case they do need our help, and by this point we're already going to be in trouble for sneaking out of the village anyway so going back wouldn't do any good. We might as well stay in position to help Naruto and the others out if they need it; if we really save their lives it might even make the Hokage overlook our departure."

Lee nodded, and a sudden gust of wind sent several leaves dancing through the clearing and around the two genin. A few seconds later, the two young shinobi heard the sound of an explosion off in the distance. "That sounded like it came from where Naruto's camp is!" TenTen shouted to her companion. The two wasted no more words, rushing in the direction of their potentially imperiled comrade.

The two genin rushed towards the campsite, quickening their pace as the sounds of an ongoing battle drifted through the woods to their ears. When they finally arrived, they saw the four Konoha ninjas battling a group of rogue ninjas who had them outnumbered by at least a two to one margin. The genin immediately rushed into the fray, double-teaming a rogue ninja that had been trying to sneak up on Naruto and hit him from behind.

"Huh?" Naruto turned about and stared at his two friends. "TenTen-chan? Bushy Brows? What're you guys-" The boy's question cut off in a startled gasp as his distraction allowed one of the rogue ninjas to plant a kunai in the boy's chest. TenTen gasped in horror as she saw the explosive tag attached to the knife ignite, and before she could even try to save her friend the tag detonated with a horrific blast, shredding Naruto's body.

TenTen gasped in shock as freshly shed blood splattered over her face and arms. Not just any blood; Naruto's blood. _No! Nononononono! It was just a shadow clone, it couldn't have been the real Naruto! All the blood will just turn into white smoke like it always does when a clone gets killed, and then he'll be right back here laughing at those rogue ninjas and trying out some sort of stupid taunt on them, because Naruto's not dead. He can't be dead, and everything's going to be okay because Naruto's not dead; he didn't just get blown up in front of me, and his blood's not all over my hands and face! He's not dead!_

Gai went down, overwhelmed when three of the rogues came at him a simultaneous attack while the jonin was trying to protect Lee. _It's all my fault! If I hadn't distracted him then … then … _A massive fire jutsu consumed Kakashi, reducing the jonin to a pile of ashes and a half-melted forehead protector. _They're all dying … I killed them … I was so stupid and I killed them all! _Kurenai's throat was torn open by a kunai, leaving a ragged hole through which the jonin gasped desperately for breath._ I never should have come here, I should've just stayed in Konoha like I was supposed to, but instead I acted like an idiot and now everyone's dying because of me! I killed Naruto!_

Kurenai slowly turned to regard TenTen, trying to draw breath through a shredded throat that continued spurting blood. Slowly, the dying jonin forced a single word through her ruined vocal cords. "Release."

* * *

"Naruto!" TenTen shrieked her friend's name while shooting bolt upright from her prone position, looking around the clearing in confusion. "I … what?" The girl gaped in shock when she saw her friend sitting ten feet away, alive and unharmed. Her eyes drifted to the three jonin, none of whom had the horrible injuries she had seen inflicted upon them just moments ago, and then she saw Lee, slowly rising from the ground and seeming every bit as confused as she was. It didn't take the girl long to put the facts together, and with a glance at Kurenai the girl declared. "Genjutsu. It was all just a genjutsu."

"Yes." Kurenai answered with cool indifference.

"When did you find out we were following you?" TenTen asked.

"As soon as the Hokage informed me that you would not be participating in this mission I was concerned that your youthful enthusiasm might lead to some questionable decisions." Gai informed the girl. "I shared my concerns with the other jonin."

"Kurenai-san and I also saw you plant the tracking tag on Naruto." Kakashi said casually. "Smart move hiding it among his explosive tags, if you had put it anywhere else it might have taken Naruto a lot longer to notice it himself; as it was he didn't find it until he was double-checking his inventory on our first night of camping."

"So, you knew we were there the entire time." Lee declared, stating the obvious.

"We did." Kurenai answered. "I thought it would be best to confront you as soon as you left Konoha, but Gai-san hoped that your … What did he call it?" The jonin paused in thought for a moment before she recalled the eccentric man's exact words. "Ah, right; he hoped that your misguided youthful exuberance would fade in time and you would return to Konoha without incident. Meanwhile, Kakashi-san said you were being idiots, but we should give you a chance to figure out how stupid you were being on your own before going to the trouble of pointing it out to you. However, when you didn't give up after two days…"

"Right." TenTen sighed. "So … how much trouble are we in?"

Kurenai glanced towards Gai and gave a slight nod. "I told you I would take care of the two of them if it became necessary." The woman declared grimly.

Gai sighed and slowly shook his head, solemnly stating. "They're my students. I'll … see to Lee. You and Kakashi can deal with TenTen." The jonin grasped Lee's arm firmly and guided the boy to his feet, then led him out of the clearing and deep into the woods, until the two were out of sight.

"Um … so … what's going to happen to us?" TenTen asked, worried by how grim all of the others looked, even Naruto.

"TenTen-chan." The boy said heavily. "You and Lee … you guys left the village without permission. You abandoned Konoha. This is … it's really bad. You guys are … well according to the rules you and Bushy Brows are both rogue ninjas now."

"Wha … We're rogue ninjas?" TenTen gasped. ""But ... but when rogue ninjas get captured the penalty is ..." The girl barely managed to force the words past the lump in her throat and out of her mouth. "Rogue ninjas … are executed on sight!"

"Yes." Kurenai said grimly, slowly drawing a kunai. "I'll make it as quick and possible." The woman said, trying to make her tone as reassuring as the words could allow, though the resolved intent to kill written on the woman's face made it impossible for TenTen to take any comfort in the words.

"N … no!" TenTen gasped in horror; the girl tried to rise to her feet and flee, but her limbs were so weak with shock and terror that they refused to answer her body's call. The girl trembled in horror when she heard Gai shout something deep in the woods, followed by a pained cry from Lee. "No! I didn't … we aren't … I didn't think…"

"It's pretty obvious you didn't think." Kakashi said mildly. "Still … it seems like a shame to kill a promising pair of ninjas when they were just being stupid instead of actively trying to betray the village…"

"I agree," Kurenai replied. "But the law is quite clear; any ninja who leaves the village without permission is a rogue ninja, and the penalty for going rogue is death. We can not simply ignore the law, even if their intentions were not malicious…"

"But … but you guys can't kill TenTen and Bushy Brows!" Naruto cried out, distress clear on his face. "I mean, yeah, they broke the rules and all, but they were probably just worried about me and trying to help!"

"Well, trying to help one's comrades is a very important principle." Kakashi declared. "I always say that ninjas who don't help their comrades are worse than ones who break the rules, and the two of them were trying to help Naruto. I know the law is usually absolute, but I think that under these circumstances there is something to be said for showing a bit of mercy."

"Are you suggesting we just let the two of them get away with breaking the law?" Kurenai demanded. After considering the matter for a few moments the woman slowly nodded and conceded. "I suppose that execution is a bit harsher than they really deserve, even if that is the law…" The woman paused in thought and then said reluctantly. "I suppose we could send them to the Hokage with a note explaining the situation; we might be bound by the law, but the Hokage has more flexibility in affairs like this and if the full circumstances were explained to him he might agree that this is a special case."

"Yeah, the old man wouldn't wanna kill TenTen and Bushy Brows!" Naruto stated, a relieved look making its way onto his face as he realized his friends were not going to die.

"What about Lee?" TenTen asked, worried about the comrade she had dragged into her plans. "Did Gai-sensei … is Lee already?"

Kakashi's one visible eye widened, and the jonin quickly sprinted off into the woods to find Gai. A short time later he returned, Gai and Lee in tow; the young genin was sporting a rather large bruise on his cheek whose shape was quite similar to that of Gai's fist, and seemed quite ashamed of himself. _Oh thank goodness, Gai just punched him instead of killing him._

Kurenai jotted down a quick note and handed it to TenTen. "Give this to the Hokage. Now, I imagine that the two of you can make your own way back to Konoha without any more delays or side trips. If you hurry you might be able to get back before an ANBU kill-team is assembled to track you down for going rogue."

"We'll leave right away." TenTen assured the jonin, quickly taking the offered note and securing it in her pouch of ninja tools. "Um … for what it's worth, Lee and I are really sorry about this, and we didn't mean to do anything bad, we just." The girl paused and shook her head, then corrected herself. "I just got a little stupid, and Lee came along to try and stop me from causing too much damage."

"Just go." Gai said sternly. "If the Hokage decides that you are still worthy of being ninjas we can discuss the matter further when I return to Konoha."

The two genin quickly fled the clearing with no further prompting. Once the two were long gone, Naruto chirped up. "So that's how 'Good ninja, Bad ninja' works…" _Kakashi-san was right, the whole plan was sorta like one big prank on the two of them … but, you know, there was like, a lesson they were supposed to learn and stuff instead of it all being done just so that we could laugh at them when it was over._

"Do you think I overdid things a bit?" Kurenai asked self-consciously. "I wanted to give the girl a good scare, but I was worried that I might have been a bit too melodramatic about it." _Plus I feel like a bit of a bully after scaring a 13-year-old girl like that; sure, it was for her own good and it will ensure that she takes this incident very, very, seriously, but still … oh well, this was probably good practice for when I get my own genin squad_.

"No, no, it was quite good." Kakashi assured her. "I thought you looked completely serious, and TenTen was obviously terrified of you." Turning to his self-proclaimed eternal rival, Kakashi asked. "How were things on your end, Gai?"

"I believe Lee has now learned that while the power of youth is a vital thing for any ninja to possess, his youthful glory must tempered by sound judgment or it can lead to foolish excesses of youthful energy." Gai declared confidently.

"Right … sure, whatever you say." Kakashi muttered.

"Um … so how much trouble are TenTen-chan and Bushy Brows really gonna get in for all of this?" Naruto asked uncertainly.

"They'll probably end up drawing punishment duty for a couple months." Kurenai answered. "Whenever there's a nasty, unpleasant job to be done they'll be the ones sent to do it. Cleaning the sewers was a popular choice when I was a genin."

"So, they'll get all the really crappy jobs for a couple months, but they won't actually get killed or have to stop being ninjas or anything, right?" Naruto asked for confirmation

"Yes, severe punishments like death or dismissal would be far too extreme for a bit of misplaced but well-intentioned youthfulness." Gai answered. "Punishment duty will give them time to reflect upon the wrongness of their actions and the severity of their mistakes without doing any permanent damage to their ninja careers."

"Plus somebody has to clean up all the crap in the sewers anyway." Kakashi added helpfully. "Without punishment duty nobody would ever take jobs like that voluntarily unless the Hokage added a lot of incentive pay."

"Um … when you say they're cleaning up crap in the sewers … do you mean, like, literal crap, or is that one of those … meta-whatsists?" Naruto asked.

"If you really want to find out you could always do something stupid so the Hokage would let you join them." Kakashi offered.

"Yeah … no thanks." Naruto said hastily.

"Are you sure?" Kakashi asked. "It would be a new and interesting learning experience, and you would probably find all sorts of uses for your ninjutsu that you never even thought of before."

"I don't think there's anything I ever need to learn that involves cleaning up crap in the sewers." Naruto declared, shuddering in revulsion.

"It would seem that even Naruto's boundless youthfulness has a limit." Gai declared. "Then again, even my own youthful exuberance had a difficult time sustaining itself in the face of an entire sewer to clean, every single day, especially since it became dirty again almost as fast as I could clean it." The eccentric man gave a quick shake of his head, and then cheerfully declared. "But enough of such serious talk! Let us go forward with the power of youth at our backs, driving us forward to ever greater heights!"

"Yeah!" Naruto cheered energetically. "Let's kick ass!"

"This is supposed to be a diplomatic mission, Naruto." Kurenai reminded the boy. "We shouldn't be kicking anybody's ass."

"Oh, tight…" Naruto said. "Well … we'll kick their ass but, like, with diplomacy and talking and stuff instead of actually kicking their asses." The boy said uncertainly.

"That doesn't even make any sense, Naruto." Kakashi commented idly, Kurenai smirked at the boy and nodded in agreement with Kakashi's words.

"Damn you and your hip attitude, Kakashi." Naruto muttered grumpily in a fair impersonation of his sensei. "Why must you always be so cool and ruin my attempts to be awesome?"

* * *

The team traveled for a couple hours before they finally reached the coast of Fire country, arriving in a small, sleepy fishing village. It took the team some time to find transport to Water country; the Gato Corporation, which was ruthlessly enforcing its monopoly on transport too and from Wave Country, controlled most of the shipping in the area and the corporation's ships were not about to provide passage to a group of Shinobi. The Konoha ninjas were eventually able to find the captain of a small fishing boat who was willing to take the quartet to Water Country in exchange for a modest fee, which he would use to purchase goods to smuggle goods into Wave Country past Gato's virtual blockade of the island. Naruto only met the man in passing, but he thought that Kaiza seemed like an alright guy, and the man was obviously quite fond of his adopted son Inari.

Kaizi deposited the Konoha shinobi on a relatively isolated stretch of shoreline on Water Country's main island, then turned his boat about and made his way back to his homeland. "So, what do we do now?" Naruto asked, looking around Water Country with open curiosity, fascinated by the fog-shrouded bamboo forest the team had arrived in. _It's a lot more humid here than it is back home too … but I guess that figures when we're on an island. Jeez, if there was any more water in the air here it'd feel like I'm swimming instead walking. Guess that's handy for Kiri ninjas though, since they do lots of water jutsu._

"We should probably find some Kiri shinobi who can escort us to their village instead of just walking directly up to Kirigakure's main gates unannounced and asking for an audience with the Mizukage." Kurenai suggested. "Considering Kiri's reputation for distrusting outsiders it would be best if we found some Kiri ninjas to accompany us as soon as possible; it is a pity we had to avoid stopping in a major port to get into the country at all, or we could have found some there."

"I agree with Kurenai-san's reasoning." Gai declared. "We want to avoid causing any diplomatic incidents."

The Konoha shinobi made their way through the misty bamboo forest, eventually finding a rough road headed inland. The team walked down the road openly, hoping that they would either encounter a Kiri patrol somewhere along the way or find some of the hidden village's ninjas when they arrived at one of the many settlements along the roadside.

Before either of those things could happen, a thin, reedy scream tore through the woods ahead of the Shinobi. Operating on pure instinct, the ninja quickly and silently rushed towards the source of the sound; several new cries drove the ninjas onward. _That sounds like a kid's voice…_ After a short sprint the ninja team arrived on the edges of a small hamlet surrounded by rice paddies, and Naruto's progress was quickly halted when Gai gripped the back of his shirt, preventing him from exiting the thicket of bamboo that surrounded the small community. "Wait, we should stay back and evaluate the situation before jumping in; we have no idea what might be happening."

There was wisdom in the man's words, but before Naruto could answer another scream emerged from the village, and the small, bloodied girl who could not have been more than five years old came rushing out from between the village's buildings. To the horror of the Konoha shinobi, a Kiri ninja, a genin judging from his size and apparent age, followed in close pursuit, and with a flick of his wrist threw a kunai into the back of the girl's neck, severing her spine. The girl died in a matter of seconds.

Gai's grip on Naruto's shirt went slack with shock, and an instant later the boy burst out of the edges of the bamboo forest and slammed a fist into the Kiri ninja's face. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" The boy demanded furiously.

"Konoha?" The Kiri ninja replied in stunned surprise, his gaze fixed on Naruto's headband. "What are Konoha ninjas doing in Water Country?"

Naruto slammed another punch into the Kiri ninja's face. "I'm the one asking questions here! Why the hell did you kill that girl?" The rest of the Konoha shinobi arrived at Naruto's side, but when Kurenai moved to intervene Gai halted her with a slight gesture of his hand. The jonin's face was drawn in a furious scowl, and it was clear that even though Naruto's actions had been dangerous and impulsive, Gai shared the sentiments that led to them. Rather than interrupt Naruto's interrogation the jonin kept a careful watch of the area, keeping eye out for the rest of the Kiri ninja's squad.

"Kekkei Genkai." The Kiri ninja responded. "That village had to purged of the bloodline curse or else many more would have died." The Kiri genin's face clouded with confusion, and he asked. "Surely Konoha does the same? Otherwise those who possess Kekkei Genkai would rain terror death down upon your village as well…"

"You … you killed her for having a Kekkei Genkai?" Naruto asked in shock. "But … but she was five years old! You killed a five year-old girl! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"It was necessary." Naruto looked up from the Kiri ninja he had captured to see two more Kiri ninjas, one male and one female, who seemed to be around his age, accompanied by an older, experienced looking man with a weathered face framed by dark hair and a thin beard. _Guess they must be a Kiri genin team_. Naruto's jonin escorts eyed the Kiri ninjas warily, but made no overtly hostile movements. "Unhand my subordinate, Konoha ninja." The Kiri jonin demanded.

"Why the hell should I do anything you ask me to?" Naruto snapped back. "You freaks run around killing little kids!"

"We do what is necessary to preserve the safety and security of our people." The Kiri countered. "If the bloodline curse is allowed to go unchecked many more innocents will die as those possessing Kekkei Genkai plunge our nation into fire and death. I take no pleasure in killing children, but if that girl had been allowed to live dozens more would have died. Now, unhand my subordinate, Konoha ninja."

"No way in hell will I do anything you tell me to!" Naruto shouted back. "I'm gonna take you sick freaks down, and I bet when the Mizukage find out what you've been up to you'll pay for what you did here today!" Gai took a step forward and gave quick, sharp nod, showing his support for his student's words, while the other two jonin adopted a casual ready stance that placed their hands in the perfect position to form handseals for their jutsu as quickly as possible.

The Kiri team leader eyed Naruto and the other Konoha shinobi with a mixture of confusion and alarm, until his eyes widened in sudden comprehension. "Ah, I think I understand. Konoha's ways are not our ways, and you think we are simply bandits or killers." The man slowly reached into his pouch of ninja tools with careful, exaggerated motions, and then removed a small scroll. He carefully unrolled the scroll and showed the Konoha ninja that it was merely a written message and that there were no seals or other traps contained within it, then rolled the scroll back up, placed it on the ground, and sent the scroll rolling to Gai's feet with a carefully measured nudge of his foot.

Gai bent to pick up the scroll, never taking his eyes off the Kiri ninja during the process. The jonin unrolled the scroll, and carefully read it over before announcing. "These Kiri ninja are executing an official mission authorized by the Mizukage himself. Naruto, release the Kiri genin."

"What?" Naruto asked in shock. "But … but that can't be right! Lemme see that, Gai-sensei!" Naruto released his prisoner and rushed up to Gai's side, standing up on the tips of his toes to read the scroll in Gai's hands.

"Team Tsubasa is hereby ordered to proceed to the village of Harima and eliminate all inhabitants, in order to ensure that none who possess the Ranton Kekkei Genkai survive. This is a C-ranked mission.

Yagura, Fourth Mizukage of Kirigakure"

"What … but … Gai-sensei, this is a fake or something … right?" Naruto asked in confusion. "This … this can't be right. I mean … there's no way the Mizukage would order people to do this kind of thing…"

"The message appears to be authentic." Gai answered. "I am not familiar with the security protocols used by Kiri, but from what I know I have no reason to believe that this scroll is a forgery. Also, simple killers would not be carrying around falsified orders on the off chance that a group of foreign ninjas might be passing by, especially not in a closed nation like Water Country."

"But … but this can't be an official mission!" Naruto insisted. "The Mizukage wouldn't do something like this! He wouldn't kill a whole village full of innocent people just 'cause some of them have Kekkei Genkai; it's insane! It's evil! It's … it's…" _I was wrong about him._ Naruto admitted to himself._ All the rumors … everything … it's all true. I thought since he was a jinchuriki he must be just like me, that he was a good guy trying to take care of his village and the people saying he was a mass-murdering lunatic were bunch of assholes making up lies about him. But … he's not like me, is he?_ Naruto's eyes drifted down to the little girl's corpse, the girl whose death Yagura had ordered. _He really is a monster…_

Gai passed the scroll back to the Kiri jonin, and gently placed a hand on his student's shoulder. "Naruto, we should go." The jonin whispered. "There is nothing more for us to do here; the Hokage would not want you associating with or being trained by the type of person who could order this massacre."

"Go?" Naruto asked incredulously. "How can we just go? They killed all these people … kids … Yagura killed all of them."

"Our mission was to contact the Mizukage." Gai responded simply. "There is no point in contacting him any more, so we should return to Konoha at once."

_This is why people hate jinchuriki like me_… Naruto slowly looked over the rest of the ruined village, noting the crushed, bloody forms of its inhabitants. _Yugito … yeah, she hurt TenTen and me, but in her own way she was just trying to help her village. I don't like what she did, but … there was a reason for it, and I could even kinda understand why she thought she was doing the right thing. This … this is just … wrong! Is … is this people think about when they hear I wanna be the next Hokage? Do people think if I'm in charge I'll go around killing people like this?_

"Naruto." Gai said, a hint of sternness coming into his voice. "It's time to leave."

_I can't … I can't just let this happen, can I? Yagura … he won't stop killing people, and as long as he keeps killing people will keep hating jinchuriki, they'll keep thinking that we're all monsters. No … I won't let him do that! I won't let him hurt any more innocent people! I won't let him make people hate and fear jinchuriki any more than they already do! I won't!_ Rage caught the boy in its iron grip once more, and Gai quickly pulled his hand off Naruto's shoulder as the Fox's chakra enveloped the boy.

"What are you do-" The Kiri jonin's question was cut off in mid-sentence when Naruto, filled with the power and rage of the Nine Tailed Fox, shot forward and slammed a punch into the man's chest, knocking him flying. Then Kiri genin moved to support their sensei, but Kurenai acted quickly to prevent them from jumping into a fight where they would be hopelessly outmatched. "Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death." The three genin dropped to the ground, harmlessly incapacitated by Kurenai's genjutsu.

Gai was about to jump into the fight between Naruto and the Kiri jonin when Kakashi cut him off with an upraised arm. "Let Naruto handle this on his own; we don't how much control he'll have over himself while using the power of the Nine Tailed Fox and his combat style and actions might be erratic. You can't count on him to support you like a comrade normally would." _And it might be interesting to see just how powerful the Nine Tailed Fox can make Naruto … could he really stand up to a jonin-level ninja using its power? _Kakashi shifted his headband so that he could view the battle between the jinchuriki and the jonin with his sharingan._ That chakra … if Naruto ever manages to gain full control over the Nine Tailed Fox's chakra he will become an incredible ninja. Naruto's father couldn't even stop the Fox without giving his life in the process; if Naruto manages to combine the skill of Minato with the raw power of the Nine Tailed Fox … no wonder the Third Hokage thinks that Naruto might end up being his successor._

The Kiri jonin was not about to go down without a fight; as soon as he recovered from Naruto's unexpectedly fast attack, the man's hands were flashing through the seals for a jutsu. "Suiton: Water Encampment Wall." Fog and water from the nearby rice paddies condensed into a thick wall of water between the jonin and the Konoha shinobi. "What are you doing?" The man demanded. "Attacking Kiri shinobi in their own country when they are executing their Mizukage's lawful orders … it's an act of war!"

"Only if you live to report anything." Gai responded. _I did not want this fight, but now that it has started we have to see it through to the end. At least Kurenai can use her genjutsu to leave the genin so confused about what really happened that they will not be reliable witnesses, so only one person will have to die today._ Turning to his student, Gai said. "Finish it, Naruto."

The enraged jinchuriki needed no further prompting. "Futon: Vacuum Sphere!" A small blast of highly concentrated air shot forward, powered by Naruto's own considerable chakra reserves and bolstered further by being infused with the power of the Nine Tailed Fox. The Kiri jonin's water wall had been intended to block the large fire jutsu that Konoha was known for, and was not nearly dense enough to stop the tight, concentrated blast of wind Naruto sent at it. The vacuum sphere tore through the water wall and drilled a hole into the jonin's head, killing the man instantly.

Naruto took several deep, calming breaths, and the Fox's chakra gradually receded from his body. Walking over to the body of the murdered child whose death had set all these events in motion, Naruto dipped his hand in the girl's blood, and tightened it into a fist "I'll stop him!" Naruto growled, his voice filled with iron determination. "I won't let Yagura kill any more innocent people! I'll show the world that not all jinchuriki are monsters! I'll prove that we can be heroes too!"

"Well," Kakashi muttered, looking at the trio of captured genin and their butchered sensei, then glancing at Naruto Uzumaki, who looked like he was not about to stop fighting until he reached the Mizukage himself. "So much for not causing an incident."

* * *

**A/N:** I confess to taking a certain amusement in crushing the expectations of people who were worried about seeing somewhat clichéd old plot devices.


	9. Alliance

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Naruto

* * *

"The Kiri genin have been dealt with." Kurenai informed her jonin companions, sparing a glance towards Naruto and small army of shadow clones that were busy burying the massacred villagers and checking for survivors while the jonin talked. "Until someone dispels the genjutsu they're under they'll be seeing dozens of different variations on the attack. It should be a day or two before any Kiri ninjas with sufficient skill to break the genjutsu arrive, and by that time they will have seen their jonin-senseu killed several times by ninja and rogue ninja from every single village in existence and half a dozen I invented. Not even a Yamanaka could sort out which version of the attack was the truth and which were fabrications. I also added a few changes of perspective that should hopefully enlighten the genin as to why committing genocide is a bad thing to do."

"Well done, Kurenai." Gai told the genjutsu specialist. "I don't suppose...."

"My Thousand Memories Jutsu wouldn't have worked on a jonin." Kurenai declared, shaking your head. "At least, not with any certainty; most jonin would be able to break the genjutsu before they grew too disoriented by the conflicting versions of events, so they would still be able to separate the genjutsu from the reality." The woman glanced towards Naruto's army of shadow clones, and then declared. "Of course, if Naruto has his way all this secrecy is going to be rather moot; this will just be the first of many battles to come, and that jonin will only be the first Kiri ninja to die at Konoha's hands."

"Do we care that the jonin died?" Kakashi asked his companions bluntly. "Certainly there would be all sorts of trouble if the truth ever came out, but I'm not really the slightest bit upset that someone who was responsible for the murder of an entire village full of innocent people is dead. Naruto's actions were certainly impulsive and short-sighted, but can either of you honestly say that what he did was wrong? He avenged the deaths of many innocent people." The odd-eyed jonin shrugged, and then added. "None of us were in any rush to stop him during the actual fight, either."

"Kakashi is correct." Gai agreed. "These ninja killed many innocent people, even children. If we had arrived five minutes sooner, we most certainly would not have simply remained hidden and watched as innocent lives came to an end right in front of us, even if intervening to stop it would cause difficulties between Konoha and Kiri. In all honesty, I did not stop Naruto because he did what I myself wished to do in my heart; perhaps Naruto's youthful idealism allowed him to see what was truly important about the situation, while our experience with the ways of ninja world left us too wary of practical concerns to perceive the moral issues that were at stake."

The other two jonin took a moment to decipher Gai's words, and then Kurenai spoke up once more. "Gai, Kakashi, I am worried about Naruto. He will not simply let the matter go and leave Water Country. He swore an oath to take down the current Mizukage, and I believe he is quite serious about it. I doubt he would leave voluntarily, and using force to make him return to Konoha against his will would tarnish his loyalty to the village. It would also be pointless; from what I know of his personality he would likely return here at the first opportunity. We will have to reason with him if we want to withdraw from Water Country without further troubles."

The other two jonin nodded in agreement with Kurenai's analysis. "We were sent to negotiate an agreement with the Mizukage to obtain training for Naruto, and instead we have killed a Kiri jonin, captured three genin, and now Naruto wants to lead a revolution against the Mizukage." Gai summarized. "Our original mission is no longer be, and after everything that we have learned it is indisputable that the Mizukage would not be a suitable instructor for Naruto even if he were willing to teach the boy. The Hokage would never approve of Naruto being trained by an insane mass-murderer."

After a few moments of heavy silence, Kakashi spoke. "Do the two of you find it curious that the Hokage sent three of his best jonin on this mission rather than including any trained diplomats and negotiators? Naruto's safety is of importance to the village, but there was no reason to dispatch three ninjas of our level unless he believed a battle with an extremely dangerous opponent was a distinct possibility."

"What are you saying, Kakashi?" Gai asked curiously.

"If the three of us really wanted to kill the Mizukage we would stand a very good chance at pulling it off, wouldn't we?" Kakashi pointed out. "Now, if I realized this, it seems to me like the Hokage might know that too, and also probably knew that Naruto would react in a way that would force a confrontation with Kiri when he learned how bad things are in Water Country."

"You think that the true purpose of our mission was never to secure training for Naruto, but to assassinate the Mizukage?" Kurenai asked.

"Oh, I don't think I could say that with anything that extreme with any degree of certainty." Kakashi responded. "But it does seem like the Hokage picked a team that could kill the Mizukage if their completely innocent diplomatic mission went horribly wrong halfway through, then included a kid with a reputation for being a bit of an impulsive loose cannon on this diplomatic mission." Kakashi shrugged. "It might not be an assassination mission, but the Hokage did create a set of circumstances that could easily lead to the Mizukage's death. It wouldn't be the first time the Hokage sent a team out on a mission without telling them all the facts; that kind of information is only given out on a need-to-know basis, and we don't need to know. Besides, this way if anybody asks everyone involved can honestly say that the Hokage never ordered an assassination mission against the Mizukage. It's classic plausible deniability."

"Kakashi's scenario seems entirely possible." Gai said slowly. "But as Team Leader, it is my responsibility to make the final decision on what we will do. Also, do not mention that theory to Naruto, it would encourage him to take action against the Mizukage without proper planning; his fires of youth burn quite brightly, after all. We are already concerned that Naruto might take unsanctioned action against Yagura; even mentioning the possibility that an attack on Yagura was indirectly sanctioned by the Hokage will make it impossible to remove him from Water Country."

"What will your decision be, Gai?" Kurenai asked. "Naruto will oppose any course of action other than staying to fight against the Mizukage. I understand and empathize with his reasons, but I cannot help but be concerned about his wellbeing. I know Naruto is strong; with the power of the Nine Tailed Fox he is entirely capable of defeating ninja who are far above his usual level of skill, and even without he is an unusually capable genin. However, this mission might be more than he can handle, and Naruto might not accept that; if we encounter the Mizukage Naruto will attempt to fight him, and that would be most unwise." Kurenai hesitated for a moment, and then added. "I read the report on his encounter with the Two-Tails jinchuriki when I was assigned to this mission; according to her the more of the Nine Tails power he uses the weaker his control will become. If Naruto tries to fight the Mizukage he might push himself too far, beyond what he can manage. I don't think any of us want that to happen."

"Yes, letting the Nine Tailed Fox go on a rampage through Water Country would be bad, especially since we'll probably be nearby when it happens." Kakashi agreed dryly. "If we are planning to make a move against the Mizukage we should get in touch with whoever's trying overthrow the guy; considering his policies I think it's a pretty safe bet that everyone with a Kekkei Genkai and most of the sane people would be interested in getting rid of him. Even if we're just heading back to Konoha, it might be a good idea to get in touch with them just so we'll have a better idea of what's going on here."

"True, but if there is some sort of rebellion how would we get in contact with them?" Kurenai asked uncertainly. "I remember hearing that one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen tried to overthrow the Mizukage several years ago … do we know anything about him?"

"Zabuza Momochi." Gai answered, recalling the reports he had read about Kiri's recent history as part of his preparation for the mission (complete with a promise to run a thousand laps around Konoha if he forgot any the details). "According to the latest reports from Konoha's agents, Zabuza is currently serving as an enforcer for various crime lords to build up the funds for another attempt to overthrow the Mizukage. He is not a good option; his rebellion lost momentum and most of his followers lost hope after he spent several years in exile with no progress. Kisame Hoshigake tried as well, but nobody has seen him in public for over a year, and from what I have heard he would not be much of an improvement on Yagura in any case." Gai shook his head. "No, if we are to going to have any interaction with the opposition to the Mizukage we should find somebody who is filled with the spirit of youthfulness, not a former rebel who has lost hope or an amoral monster."

Kakashi glanced at his self-proclaimed rival, briefly wondering what an appropriately youthful Mizukage would be like. The thought of a Mizukage who continually ranted about the joys youth and raised legions on new genin with identical bowl haircuts who shared his numerous odd obsession was more than a little traumatic. _Gai or someone like him as a Kage … that's a scary thought. I don't think the world could survive an entire village full of little Gai-clones; just having Lee and Gai at the same time is a bit too much._

Gai's head snapped up, and the man surreptitiously scanned the area. He could not see anything out of place, but years of experience and carefully honed instincts told the man that he was being watched. He quickly looked to the other two jonin and flicked his eyes to the line of bamboo surrounding the village; both gave him the slightest of nods, and began scanning the area while making a strong effort to appear no more wary than they had been a few seconds ago. _Somebody is watching us, but until we have a better idea of whether they are friend or foe we should not take any drastic action. Killing a potential ally or innocent bystander would be most unyouthful. Also, we need more information about the situation in Kiri, and making peaceful contact with the locals would help us accomplish that goal._

"Um, hey Gai-sensei?" Naruto suddenly called from the middle of the group of clones engaged in burial duty. "This guy's not dead!" The boy quickly dispelled his clones, revealing a single Naruto crouching besides a badly wounded man who could easily have been mistaken for a corpse.

The three jonin rushed to the boy's side, looking the wounded man Naruto had discovered over; he was relatively young, barely out of his teens, with light brown hair and a small scar that cut through the right side of his upper lip. A vicious kunai wound decorated the man's stomach, and from the fresh blood on Naruto's hands the boy had obviously just finished returning the disemboweled man's guts to their original location. "Um … is there anything you can do for him?" Naruto asked, concern clear in his voice.

"Basic first aid won't be enough for an injury like that, but I might be able to manage something." Kakashi tapped the headband that covered his sharingan, and then explained. "I've worked with medical ninjas before; without all their knowledge of anatomy or their training in precise chakra control I can't do proper medical ninjutsu, but I can probably manage the equivalent of meatball surgery. It won't be pretty and I'll probably screw some things up in his body, but he'll have a chance of surviving."

"Do it." Gai confirmed. "Any chance of survival is better than none, and he might know something that can help us." Kakashi's hands glowed green as he did his best to patch up the man's injuries with his copied medical ninjutsu. By the time the jonin finished his work the man's stomach was covered in horrific scar tissue and his navel seemed to have disappeared completely somewhere in the healing process, but at least he was alive and his guts were, presumably, back where they were supposed to be. Kakashi did not even want to think about how much of a mess he might have caused internally with his very crude medical ninjutsu, but it was better than leaving the man to bleed out.

"Wow … you're a crappy medical ninja, Kakashi-san." Naruto declared bluntly.

"Yeah." The jonin agreed. "Like I said earlier, knowing how to perform medical ninjutsu doesn't do much good if you don't have all the medical training that goes with it; it's kind of hard to put a wounded person's body back together when you don't have much more than basic knowledge of anatomy." Kakashi shrugged and added. "It's one of the things that makes the sharingan's ability to copy jutsu less powerful than you might think; I might have copied over a thousand different jutsus over the years, but there's a big difference between copying somebody's jutsu and really knowing all about how to use it properly." With a shrug, the man tossed a significant glace at his recent and very unfortunate patient. "He's probably going to survive, but I don't think he's going to wake up any time soon and it would probably be a good idea to get him to a proper medic as soon as possible."

The four Konoha shinobi stood in silence for a moment, and then Naruto spoke up. "Um … hey Gai-sensei?" The boy asked hesitantly. "I know I probably wasn't supposed to kill that Kiri guy, even if he was an asshole who really, really deserved it after everything he did. I know you probably wanna go back to Konoha now, and I'm probably gonna get into a lot of trouble since I told the Hokage I wouldn't cause any trouble and then I went and killed a Kiri ninja. So, I know I probably shouldn't be asking for any favors right now, but…"

"You want to stay." Gai finished. "You promised to stop Yagura from killing anybody else, and you intend to keep your promise, no matter what it costs you."

"Yeah." Naruto said, nodding in agreement. "Stopping that bastard from killing any more people is more important to me than anything else right now. Even if it means I'm gonna get in trouble later, even if it means I get stuck cleaning sewers, or even tossed out of the ninja program completely, I can't just let this kinda thing happen. These people didn't deserve to die, and I can't just ignore that, even if it means Konoha and the Hokage are gonna be pissed at me. Even if ignoring this meant that I could be sure that I would become the next Hokage it wouldn't be worth it; if I don't try to save these people now, then how can I ever deserve to be the next Hokage?"

"Kid's got a point." A man's voice called out from the edge of the bamboo forest surrounding the small farming village. "I'd always heard Konoha ninjas were weak and couldn't get the job done or make the sorts of hard choices ninjas need to make; looks like I heard wrong."

"So, are you tired of watching us now?" Kakashi called out in response, sounding rather bored. "Naruto and Gai are being pretty serious right now, so if you're waiting for them to do something stupid and funny you'll probably be disappointed; you might as well just come out and talk to us face-to-face."

"Yeah, might as well." The man strode out of the woods, revealing himself to a grizzled Kiri rogue ninja in his late thirties whose most immediately notable feature was the patch covering his right eye, which had several prominently bulging veins surrounding it that seemed to gradually fade after a few moments. "You're sharingan Kakashi, right?" The man asked, looking in Kakashi's direction. "Always hoped I might run into you one day, but I didn't expect it to be under these circumstances. You can call me Ao."

W_hy must my eternal rival be more famous and well-known than I am? I am one win ahead of him in our continuing contest of ninja might!_ "I am the mighty Gai, Konoha's beautiful green beast, master of Taijutsu, and leader of this team!" Gai announced.

Ao regarded the eccentric jonin for a moment, and then shrugged. "Never heard of you." The Kiri rogue stared at Naruto for a moment, and his one visible eye narrowed as he regarded the genin. _That kid's chakra network looked a lot like the Mizukage's; must be Konoha's jinchuriki, I heard they had one about that age._ "So," Ao began, "I didn't see the actual fight, but between the dead and genjutsued loyalist ninjas and the slaughtered village I can take a pretty good guess at what happened. You came across Yagura's pet killers murdering everyone that they could find, and the you took them down, right?"

"Essentially." Kurenai agreed. "What is your interest in this matter? I find it unlikely that a rogue ninja like you just happened to be traveling through the area and spotted us, and was then overcome with a sudden need to socialize."

"My eyesight's above average, so I saw the lot of you from quite a ways off." Ao declared, smirking as though he was privy to a private joke that none of the Konoha ninjas would understand. "However, you're right that this meeting isn't entirely a coincidence. Considering the fact that you just killed one of his jonin I think it's safe to assume you're no friends of Yagura's; not sure why Konoha decided to get involved now, but we could use the help." The man grimaced and shook his head. "Anyway, we still have some sources within the Mizukage's loyalists, and when the word got out that this village was on his extermination list I tried to get here in time to warn them. Looks like I didn't pull it off, though at least you managed to save one of the guys with a Kekkei Genkai; Terumi-sama will be happy about that."

"Terumi?" Gai repeated the name with a questioning tone.

"She's been leading the opposition to Yagura for the last couple years, especially after Zabuza Momochi's try at a coup didn't work out." Ao answered. "If you guys are here to deal with Yagura then you'll probably want to talk to Terumi-sama before doing anything else."

"We should go talk to her, Gai-sensei!" Naruto declared. "I mean, we gotta stop Yagura, and if there are other people who're trying to get rid of him too then shouldn't we be working with them?" Not even giving his sensei and commander a chance to respond, Naruto turned to Kurenai and Kakashi and declared. "C'mon guys, let's go meet up with the plucky rebels so we can get rid of the evil overlord and save Water Country!" Naruto looked over to Ao and asked. "Hey, this Terumi chick's not a princess or something, is she? 'Cause that would be really awesome if she was, and that's exactly how these sorts of things are always supposed to be."

_What's with this kid? He's a jinchuriki and he's obviously been very well trained if the number of clones he was using earlier is anything to judge by, not to mention the fact that at his age he's working alongside ninjas like Kakashi Hatake, but now he's acting like a hyperactive brat instead of a trained killer._ "No, Terumi-sama is not a princess." Ao answered, putting a slight emphasis on the honorific_. Kids these days, no respect for their elders… Well, hyperactive brat or not Terumi-sama will probably want to see if we can get Konoha and their jinchuriki to join the battle on our side; to beat Yagura we'll need all the help we can get._

Gai nodded slowly, pondering his options. _The timing of Ao's arrival is rather convenient, but the reason he gave for being in this place at this time is certainly plausible. However, despite a strong explanation for his presence and my instincts' insistence that he is not unyouthful, it is possible he could be leading us into a trap. If that is the case, then there are measures that we can take to deal with that possibility…_ "Ao-san." Gai said. "We will go with you to meet your commander Terumi, but there will be one condition."

"This condition being?" Ao asked.

"You have several explosive tags, right Naruto?" Gai asked; when the boy nodded the jonin continued. "Key one of the tags to your chakra, and then give it to Ao-san."

"And if he tries anything funny I blow him up, right?" Naruto asked for confirmation. "That's probably not gonna happen though, I think he's being honest with us." The boy frowned and shrugged before adding. "Never hurts to be careful though."

"And what guarantee do I have that you won't just blow me up whenever you happen to feel like it?" Ao asked suspiciously.

"None." Kurenai answered simply. "But you are the one asking us to follow you to an unknown location; you could be leading us into an ambush for all we know. If you will not accept Gai-san's condition for the meeting you can always walk away."

Ao grimaced and reluctantly held out a hand to accept the explosive tag from Naruto. "One condition of my own." The man added. "The wounded villager; we have a medical ninja at our camp who can see to him." The man gave a slight smirk and added. "I can see now why sharingan Kakashi is a renowned warrior rather than a famous medic."

"I thought I did pretty well for someone with no medical ninja training." Kakashi grumbled. Dropping his voice low enough that only his fellow Konoha ninjas could hear him, the man deadpanned. "Damn Ao-san and his hip attitude, he made me seem so uncool and ruined my awesome moment."

"Huh, did you say something Kakashi?" Gai asked distractedly. _I was too busy thinking about the mission to give my eternal rival my full attention; how unyouthful of me._

"Okay, that was just plain weird." Naruto observed; Kurenai nodded in agreement with the boy's sentiment.

* * *

The journey through Kiri's fog-shrouded bamboo forests occurred in relative silence; the Konoha shinobi were not about to have a sensitive conversation where the mysterious Kiri rebel could overhear them, and Ao was not the type to socialize. After traveling for an hour and a half, their guide halted, seemingly in the middle of a completely unremarkable area.

"It's an impressive genjutsu." Kurenai declared after a moment. "Tying genjutsu to a location is much more difficult than directly affecting human targets, and the skill level behind the genjutsu itself is quite advanced." _I could certainly manage something on this level … but it wouldn't be easy, and keeping it up all the time would be a pain. They must have at least two genjutsu users close to my skill level. _Kurenai glanced over at her comrades; Gai had just finished dispelling the genjutsu's effects on himself, finding the task a bit more difficult than usual while his arms were occupied carrying the wounded villager. Meanwhile Kakashi, sharingan exposed, was staring at the genjutsu with interest, no doubt hoping to add yet another technique to his library of ninja skills. Naruto had his eyes closed in intense concentration; it seemed that the boy had been trying to break the genjutsu since Kurenai announced its presence, but it was beyond his ability. Kurenai took mercy on the genin and freed him from the illusion herself.

"Oh, thanks Kurenai-san." Naruto said, opening his eyes to discover that the bamboo forest had faded away and a small, ramshackle village was now before them. The village had the look of a hastily assembled camp, though judging from the degree of wear and tear some of the buildings had been in place for several years. A small population of rogue Kiri ninjas had been engaged in several different training exercises, but now they had all halted their previous tasks to stare at the newcomers from Konoha.

"What're you looking at?" Ao growled at the nearest set of rogues staring at them. "If you've got time to stare at us, one of you can take that injured man to the medics, and the rest of you can get back to work." The ninjas hastily complied; a volunteer took custody of the wounded villager from Gai, while the rest simply returned to their shuriken practice, though it was obvious that they were still intensely curious about the presence of foreign ninja in their midst. Looking back at the Konoha ninja, Ao said. "This way, we'll want to meet with Terumi-sama before some gossiper spreads the word about there being foreign ninjas here around the entire camp."

The ninjas arrived outside one of the larger, slightly less ramshackle buildings in the rogue's camp, and Ao told them to wait outside while he spoke with the leader of the rebel movement. Naruto glanced around the camp curiously, and then whispered to his fellow Konoha ninjas. "Man, this place is a dump. Then again, I guess since these guys are on the run and stuff they can't really set up a nice city, or else Yagura would've found them by now; they've probably had to move a couple times in the past. So … we are gonna help these guys, Gai-sensei."

Gai hesitated. "I will need to talk to Terumi-san before making any decisions." _I do not approve of Yagura's actions, but until we know more about these rebels it would be foolish to commit ourselves to their cause._

Naruto grimaced, but offered no further response. After a short wait Ao returned and held the hut's door open for them. "Terumi-sama will see you now." The Konoha shinobi entered the shack and Ao went elsewhere; inside, the ninjas found a rather spartan but reasonably comfortable room. While it was still a basic wooden shack, some effort had been taken to turn it into a proper dwelling by tightening up the walls, adding a simple wood floor, and even installing a small glass window opposite from the shack's lone door. A large and incredibly detailed map of Water Country's main island dominated the room, spread out across the floor with a dozen or so simple chairs arrayed around it.

Only one other person was in the room, a striking, voluptuous young woman in a simple but elegant blue dress, whose auburn hair did not even reach down to her shoulders, though she kept her bangs long enough to cover her right eye. The woman had some sort of book open on her lap, and Naruto realized with a sudden sense of shock that the book was open to a page with his picture on it. Upon closer inspection, the boy noticed that the opposite page bore his name and the words "Nine Tails Jinchuriki" in large print. _Wow, never thought I'd be in somebody's bingo book when I'm still just a genin. Guess it makes sense though; bingo books are used to provide up-to-date information on important and dangerous foreign shinobi, and jinchuriki seem like they're just about always a pretty big deal._ Naruto was not particularly surprised when the woman quickly flipped to the entry for each of the other Konoha shinobi, before finally returning to Naruto's page once more.

With a smile, the woman introduced herself. "I am Mei Terumi; as Ao has no doubt told you, I am the current leader of the opposition to Yagura's rule." The woman's gaze turned to Kurenai. "By way, Yuhi-san, congratulations on your recent promotion to full jonin." Mei's eyes shifted to Naruto, and her smile widened. "I must confess, the entry on you in Kiri's bingo book did not mention what a cute boy you were, Naruto-kun."

Naruto blushed brightly at the beautiful woman's words. _She just said she thought I was cute! Really pretty women like her don't ever say stuff like that to a kid like me!_

The woman's smile remained firmly in place, and her attention was still fixed on Naruto. "So tell me, Naruto-kun; what brings you and your friends to this country? Ao-san already told me quite a bit, but I think I would like to hear what you have to say, Naruto-kun."

Before the overwhelmed boy could muster a response, Gai quickly cut in. "I believe I can answer you question, Terumi-san." _Naruto is not mature enough to deal with someone like this woman; the boy can handle a straight up fight, but he is still too young to know what to do when a beautiful woman uses flirtation as a tool to distract and control him. It was most unyouthful of her to set her attention on the most vulnerable member of our group, but she is obviously seeking to establish that she is in a position of strength. Showing us that she has read our entries in Kiri's bingo book was intentional, and she obviously remains aware of affairs in the broader ninja world if she knows that Kurenai was only recently promoted from special jonin to full jonin._

"Certainly, Gai-san." The leader of the Kiri rogues readily agreed, her smile still firmly in place. If she was perturbed that her attempt to take advantage of Naruto's inexperience had been thwarted, she gave no indication of it.

"The Hokage dispatched us on a diplomatic mission to make contact with the Mizukage." Gai grimaced. "At the time, we were not fully aware of how terrible the situation in Kiri had become; there were many rumors, but some of the rumors were so outlandish that they defied belief." Gai's eyes briefly flicked to Naruto before returning to Mei. "When we arrived, we came across a village that the Mizukage ordered massacred to eliminate a Kekkei Genkai that some of its inhabitants possessed. We did what we could to avenge and honor the dead, and managed to save the life of one villager. Then we were contacted by your man Ao, who led us here."

"I see." Mei replied, her constant smile rendering her expression unreadable. "And why did the Hokage dispatch three of his jonin and Konoha's only jinchuriki on a diplomatic mission? It seems rather," The women paused, and then drew out the final word "excessive."

"Hokage-sama had his reasons." Gai evaded the question. _My eternal rival's suggestion that this was a double-blind assassination mission should not be mentioned to outsiders, and Terumi-san would almost certainly use it to force a commitment out of us to aid her cause. Naruto already wants to join these rebels, and I suspect Kakashi will want to act on his theory about the Hokage's true wishes for this mission, but as team leader the responsibility for any final decision rests with me. I will not reveal anything that could commit us to aiding these rebels without more information._

"Kages never take any action without a good reason." Mei agreed. "But I must wonder, now that you have seen what the situation in Kiri is with your own eyes, what will you do?" The beautiful woman's eyes turned to Naruto once more. "I will not lie to you or attempt to save face; Kiri is in dire need of your help. Yagura was good ruler once, but those days are long in the past. Now he drenches Kiri in the blood of his own people; I know we are called Bloodmist Village in outside world due to his barbaric genin exam." The woman paused, and for the first time since they had met her, the smile constantly wore slipped for half a second. "Many good people have died. We have tried to stop Yagura, but we simply do not have the strength or numbers at this time; the only chance Kiri has is if someone strong enough to oppose the Mizukage steps forward"

Moments before Naruto could bolt to his feet and loudly declare his intention to help take down Yagura, a wave of windblown leaves suddenly drifted across his vision, and then he was suddenly, unexpectedly back at Ichiraku Ramen, enjoying a quick meal with Lee and TenTen. "Huh? What the heck?!" Naruto frowned. "I just got a genjutsu put on me, didn't I? Dammit, I suck at breaking breaking genjutsu. Oh well, I might as well keep trying until Kurenai-san can free me." The boy grimaced and set to work trying to dispel the genjutsu from within.

Kurenai caught the enscrolled Naruto Uzumaki and gently set the boy down on the floor, taking a moment to ensure that he would be in a reasonably comfortable position. Then, the jonin turned to Mei and scowled. "If you are quite done trying to manipulate Naruto-kun…"

Mei's smile did not slip in the slightest at the accusation. "The boy is jinchuriki to the strongest of all the tailed beasts." She said simply. "Our rebellion against the Mizukage has been a long one, and I am not its first leader. The people of Kiri lost hope a long time ago; for all that we hate the madness of Yagura's rule, there are few who will stand up to him if they believe there is no hope of victory. Most of the people here have Kekkei Genkai, or were close friends or family those with bloodline abilities; the only people willing to fight Yagura now are those with nothing to lose."

Mei's eyes turned to the unconscious boy. "Naruto can change that; he represents new blood, and a new hope for the rebellion. The Nine Tailed Fox is the strongest of all the Tailed Beasts; he will be seen as someone strong enough to defeat Yagura in battle."

"Naruto is not strong enough to defeat the Mizukage." Gai declared grimly. "He is strong, incredibly so, and in his own way the boy is both a natural genius and dedicated enough to make the most out of the potential his natural genius and the powers possessed by jinchuriki presents, but he is still only a genin."

"This diplomatic mission of yours," Mei said suddenly. "There is only one thing Kiri and Yagura have to offer that Konoha would be interested in that would cause you to include a young jinchuriki still in training with your diplomatic party. You wanted Yagura's secrets; you hoped he could train Naruto to control the Nine Tailed Fox as Yagura himself controls the Three Tailed Turtle."

Mei's eyes drifted over Naruto once more. "The boy's actual skill level is of secondary importance. Our current difficulties are largely a result of poor morale within the rebellion; ever since Zabuza's coup failed there is nobody who is seen as strong enough to fight Yagura. With two Kekkei Genkai I myself am strong enough to stand against him, but ever since the Kaguya clan's rebellion Kekkei Genkai have been hated and feared by many within Kiri." Mei's smile held the slightest hint of bitterness. "Even if the alternative is Yagura's continued rule, many will hesitate to rally behind a rebel leader who possesses the 'bloodline curse,' especially when she has two separate ones. Even among the people who believe that I could beat Yagura, it has taken me years to build up my current level of support."

"But they will rally behind Naruto?" Kakashi asked. "Why? Kiri does not have a reputation for trusting outsiders."

"Presentation will be important." Mei conceded. "The presence of other Konoha ninja would be best left unmentioned, and if you intend to participate I would have to ask that you begin wearing masks and doing as much as possible to hid your affiliation with Konoha, but a slightly altered version of the truth should remain quite palatable to the people of Kiri in Naruto's case. Young Naruto comes to Kiri, seeking the renowned wisdom of the Mizukage, and instead finds murder and tyranny. The boy swears an oath on the blood of a murdered village to avenge their deaths, and boldly issues a challenge to the Mizukage himself. By the time my agents begin to spread the tale it should be quite stirring, and will not offend the more xenophobic inhabitants of Kiri. Naruto will be a symbol that Kiri can unify behind, and will represent a challenge that Yagura cannot afford to ignore."

"You want to use Naruto as a figurehead. Not only that, you plan to use him as bait to draw Yagura into battle at a time and place of your choosing." Kurenai realized.

"Yes." Mei admitted readily. "I will do whatever is necessary to free Kiri from Yagura's rule and end this senseless bloodshed. Unfortunately, as long as Yagura remains in the Mizukage's tower within the heart of Kirigakure itself attacking him will be impossible. We would have to carve our way through an army of bodyguards to reach him, and at the end we would face an all-out battle with Yagura himself. Zabuza already tried that course, and it was bloody failure. Even if we did reach Yagura, in his current state he would not hesitate to transform fully into the Three Tailed Turtle in the middle of the village; the collateral damage caused by a full-scale battle against a Tailed Beast in the middle of the city would be catastrophic. There is no point in ending Yagura's reign of terror if we kill most of the people living within Kirigakure in the process of saving it."

"So you use Naruto as bait to lure Yagura out into a relatively deserted area, and then ambush him?" Gai shook his head. "Yagura would be on the lookout for a trap."

"I do not expect to catch him off guard." Mei conceded. "However, getting him out of the Mizukage's tower and Kirigakure is more important than achieving surprise. In addition, he will have to leave a garrison behind in Kirigakure itself or else risk either an uprising or a sneak attack on the city while he is away. He will bring many of own loyalists with him, but he will not have his full forces; it is the weakest position we can realistically hope to place him in. He will not tolerate an open challenge to his authority, or a potential nucleus of rebellion like Naruto; Yagura will attack with everything he can spare, and come out personally to destroy the boy. We can predict his response to our actions, and that makes him vulnerable."

"So, your plan is to lure him and probably about half of his ninja out of Kirigakure, then try to ambush him when he'll already be expecting a sneak attack." Kakashi declared. "Yeah, there's no way that could possibly go wrong."

"I assume that since you came here for training Naruto cannot perform a full transformation into the Nine Tailed Fox, correct?" When Gai shook his head, Mei continued. "Pity, that would have been quite useful. However, few ninjas truly understand jinchuriki lore; I myself would never have done any research on the matter if not for the fact that I have been fighting one for years. The only standard most of Kiri's ninjas have to judge jinchuriki by is what they know Yagura can do."

"A genjutsu." Kurenai concluded. "I know from the barrier around your camp that you have people skilled in the art. If you create an illusion of Naruto becoming the Nine Tailed Fox most of Yagura's army would be terrified. They would also expect Yagura to immediately transform himself, and at that point…"

"Only the really brave and really stupid ninjas wouldn't run away; even I wouldn't want to be anywhere near a fight between two Tailed Beasts." Kakashi offered. "Yagura won't fall for it though, and the jonin would probably see through a genjutsu that you had to spread over so many people, but the genin and chunin would panic; by the time the illusion was dispelled and order was restored to that many frightened ninja the fight with Yagura would already be over. You can also have your best fighters and assassins targeting any enemy commanders to prolong the chaos."

"As long as Yagura is beaten before his army pulls itself together we will win." Mei assured the Konoha jonin. "Much of the loyalty he retains is driven by fear of his wrath and the belief of his men in Yagura's invincibility. Once Yagura is dead both of those things will cease to be issues, and most of Kiri's shinobi will either join the rebellion or at least cease to stand in our way."

"And you would be the new Mizukage." Gai's gaze drifted to Naruto, still caught within Kurenai's genjutsu. "Your plan will not work without Naruto, will it?"

"Ah, so that is how it is." Mei's eyes hardened, but her smile remained firmly in place. "Yes, a jinchuriki like Naruto is by far the best challenger to present to Yagura; any non-jinchuriki with the skill to challenge Yagura would want the position of Mizukage for themselves, and I believe that I am the best candidate for the job. However, while Naruto allows me to accelerate my plans and save lives by acting against Yagure sooner than I would be able to without his help, he is not indispensable. Further, he is only one of the eight other jinchuriki in the world, any of whom would help me against Yagura."

"You're bluffing, and not doing a very good jobe of it.." Kakashi announced in a bored, disinterested tone. "None of the other jinchuriki would help you: the One Tails is too unstable, the Two, Four, Five, and Eight Tails belong to villages that would take any request for help as a sign of weakness and immediately attack, the Seven Tails is a recluse that avoids all human contact, and if the Six Tails was anywhere you could find you would have already recruited him or mentioned him as a threat. The fact that you have never issued a request for aid from any of the other villages shows that you realize these facts; Naruto's arrival in Water Country is an opportunity you will never have again."

"Your knowledge of foreign jinchurikir is impressive, but if you think you can use this internal diagreement as an opportunity to attack Kiri or turn it into a puppet of Konoha I will kill you myself." Mei declared in an eerily cheerful voice. "However, I suppose some minor concession in acknowledgement of Konoha's role in liberating Kiri from Yagura's rule would not be unacceptable. Wave country has traditionally been within Kiri's sphere of influence; in exchange for Konoha's aid I remove our interests from Wave Country and allow Konoha to take on any future contracts from that nation."

"Kiri has no control over Wave Country." Kurenai regarded the Kiri leader with a frown. "The Gato Corporation is the dominant force there, and has been ever since Kiri became more focused on its internal conflicts than on maintaining its interests in other countries."

"Once the civil war against Yagura ends I intend to reassert Kiri's traditional spheres of influence. Thugs and petty criminals cannot oppose the might of one of the five great shinobi villages; removing the Gato Corporation from Wave Country would be a simple affair a single genin squad would probably be enough to restore the state to Kiri's sphere of influence." Mei looked down at the enscrolled Konoha genin still snoozing on the floor of her headquarters. "Given that your original purpose in coming to Kiri was to secure Yagura's knowledge of jinchuriki lore, I could also forward copies of any relevant texts to Konoha as an indication of our gratitud."

"Such information would be appreciated." Gai temporized. "I would also imagine that, since Konoha came to Kiri's aid in its greatest hour of need, Kiri would not be so unyouthful as to neglect Konoha should it ever require assistance."

"A reasonable expectation." Mei agreed. "While Kiri would never submit to a foreign overlord, the people of Kiri do remember those who aid them, and will meet kindness and friendship with the same. It might even be possible to negotiate a trade agreement or other long-term arrangements to acknowledge the spirit of friendship that has brought our nations together as equals."

"So, if we help you kill Yagura you'll give us Wave Country, access to Yagura's knowledge of jinchuriki, you'll owe us a favor, and there's the possibility of trade or an alliance." Kakashi summarized. "What do you guys think, does that sound like a good deal? Seems fair enough to me."

"We would have to consult the Hokage for final approval." Gai's gaze shifted to Kakashi. "It would probably be best if you dispatched Pakkun with the message; I can have Ninkame transport him to the mainland." _It has been a while since I have used my turtle summon for anything more serious than having Nankami do an occaisional covert check-up on my students when they practice by themselves._

Before Kakashi could respond Kurenai preempted him. "My sparrow summon would be a better choice for carrying a message back to Konoha."

"Very well, I will leave that in your hands then." Gai declared. Glancing at his student, the jonin added. "You should probably also release the genjutsu on Naruto and let him know what has happened, I am sure he will be filled with youthful joy to learn that we will be battling the Mizukage."

* * *

**A/N:** Made a couple little tweaks to Chapters 4 and 5, nothing major, but one or two things that were only vaguely implied before are a bit more explicit now.


	10. Meeting of the Minds

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Naruto

* * *

"Hey, Kenta, you heard the rumors that've been going around about the rebels?" Saki asked eagerly, propping her booted feet up on the table and leaning back in her chair. The young woman wrapped her hands behind her head, casually running them through her close-cropped black hair. "They've been getting pretty interesting lately." The woman glanced down at her shirt, and casually picked a piece of lint off the black fabric, then brushed off her pants, which were the same color. "Not that the rumors are boring the rest of the time, but these were even more interesting than usual."

"There are always rumors about the rebels." Kenta glowering at the annoying woman he was stuck on guard duty with "And get your feet off the table, people eat there. It's unsanitary to put your dirty shoes on top of it."

"But if I don't have my feet on our table there's nowhere else to put them." Saki smirked at her companion. "I mean, this crappy little guard tower is just four half-walls, a roof, two chairs, and the table. I suppose you could always go get me another chair for my feet if it really bothers you that much."

"Or you could just sit down like a normal person." Kenta glanced at the woman speculatively, and then added. "Or if you must always prop your feet up like that, you could at least start wearing a dress instead of always having pants on."

"Pervert." Saki snorted in a mixture of disgust and amusement. "Anyway, I have to prop my feet up; ever since my knees got a little melted a couple months back they get sore as hell if I don't keep them up; it's why I'm stuck in a dumb guard tower in a worthless outpost with an old washout like you instead of actually being somewhere useful doing real ninja work."

"I'm only forty, and lots of perfectly respectable ninjas are still genin; the chunin exam is only for the best of the best." Kenta grumbled.

"I managed it, and I'm half your age." Saki shot back. "Hell, if not for stupid my stupid melty knees I would've made special jonin, and been on my way to full jonin by now. Kind of hard to be a taijutsu specialist when standing on my feet for more than two minutes causes crippling pain, though, more's the pity. 'course, even half-crippled I can still kick your …" Saki grimaced, and amended her earlier statement. "Well, I could beat the crap out of you; kicking would be a bad idea." The woman stretched her arms out and let out an exaggerated yawn. "So, back to my original question, have you heard the rumors that some jinchuriki kid has joined up with the rebels?

"They're stupid." Kenta grunted. "The Six Tails hasn't been seen for a long time, no reason he'd show up now." _I hate being stuck in this tower with Saki the stuck up bitch for an entire shift, thinks she's so much better than me just because she had a bit of rank and prestige before she got tossed out here. She should know by now that nobody gives a shit that she used to be a good ninja, she's a crap one now, and crappy ninjas like us get tossed out in worthless little guard posts like this. Plus, she just will not shut up, no matter what I say or do! It almost makes me wish something would happen just so I wouldn't have to deal with her any more._

"Jeez, you're an idiot." Saki declared waspishly. "The jinchuriki they've got isn't Utakata, it's some kid that was from Konoha and ran off here on his own to try and steal Yagura-sama's knowledge; the Nine Tails jinchuriki. That's three times as many tails as Yagura-sama's got; could be bad news. I mean, more tails means that the beast is stronger and nastier and more badass, and nine's a lot more than three; the Nine Tails is supposed to be the strongest out of all the Tailed Beasts, right? I heard the jinchuriki kid's taken out, like, a dozen patrols a night for the last three nights; and that he can be in a dozen different places at the same time."

"So he can use a clone jutsu, big deal." Kenta grumbled.

"No, not like a clone jutsu, but like actual copies of the kid running all over the place." Saki corrected. "Clones can't get too far away from the person who made them, but he's been seen at the same time in two different places on the opposite side of Water Country from each other. Plus he's got all kinds of crazy skills and jutsus, and he can use every single type of chakra nature manipulation and he's got a bunch of different Kekkei Genkai; simply put his skills are just plain nuts. I heard Yagura-sama is planning to pull the patrols and sentries back to Kirigakure in order build up a force to wipe out the jinchuriki kid and the rest of the rebels." Saki frowned and scratched the back of her head with a single finger. "Hmm … what was that kid's name again anyway? Sumiko told me what it was earlier today when her patrol checked in…" Saki searched her memory for the name. "Nagato somethingorother…"

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, remember it!" The voice of a young man announced from the roof of the guard tower. Before either of the guards could react a bright orange blur shot into the tower with a shout of, "Dynamic Entry: Naruto Style!" and slammed a kick into Kenta's face, knocking the man staggering. Before Kenta could recover from the blow Naruto threw a kunai that caught the 40-year-old genin in the throat, and Kenta slowly collapsed to the ground gasping for breath.

"Lemme make a wild guess here." Saki said casually, not even bothering to rise from her chair or remove her feet from their position atop the table. "You're Naruto Uzumaki, right?" The boy nodded in response. "Alright, I give up." Noting the boy's surprise at how quickly she surrendered, the Kiri ninja explained, "You're not close enough for mt to try sucker-punching you, and you probably listened in on my talk with washout there long enough to know that I can't exactly fight a mobile battle. Well, I could, but it would hurt a hell of a lot and I really don't feel like going through all that pain and bother right now to avenge Mr. Dropout the Dumbass. I mean, Kenta was an asshole, I would rather thank you for finally getting rid of him for me than try to pick a nasty, painful fight with you over it. Besides, I'm not dumb enough to want trouble with a jinchuriki; I've seen what Yagura can do when he's pissed off, and you're supposed to be three times worse than he is." Saki shook her head. "No thanks."

"Alright, but if I'm gonna let you live then you have to take a message back to that Turtle bastard for me." Naruto decided. _The only reason we're hitting these isolated little outposts is to spread the word that I'm around and planning to kick Yagura's ass, so having her go back to Kirigakure and spread the word makes sense._

"Messages are good." Saki declared. "I have to be alive to carry back a message, and as a general rule I like being alive, even if the crappy no-good knees do make life a lot less fun than it used to be."

"Alright, well when you get back to Kirigakure and see Yagura, you tell him that I'm Naruto Uzumaki, jinchuriki of the Nine Tailed Fox, and I'm gonna stop him from hurting any more innocent people! You tell him I'm coming for him, and I'm gonna kick his sorry ass!"

"Yeah, sure thing kid." Saki agreed readily. _I'll have to spice it up a bit, what he actually said sounds a little corny; maybe if I make the whole thing a little more dramatic I'll get a pay raise, and finally have enough money to get my damn knees fixed_. His message delivered, Naruto turned about and bolted out of the tour, disappearing into Kiri's perpetual fog within seconds. Saki looked up the long road which wound its way to Kirigakure itself; it was just under a two hour walk from Saki's outpost to the ninja city. "Walking all the way back to Kirigakure with my busted knees … it beats dying, but this is still gonna suck." Saki grumbled.

* * *

"One patrol and three guard outposts destroyed." Mei frowned down at the reports on last night's raids against Yagura's forces, and then looked over at Ao and the Konoha shinobi. "That is a quite a bit worse than the damage for the last three nights before this; Yagura must be starting to pull his people back in preparation an offensive against us. I have already informed my agents within Kirigakure to begin the next phase of the plan; I imagine that right now Yagura is being given the information that will guide him into the area I have chosen for our engagement. By this time Naruto-kun's reputation should be quite well established among the enemy; I assume you have continued to follow Hatake-san's suggestion that you spare the occasional ninja to spread tales of Naruto Uzumaki, challenger to the Mizukage and champion of Kiri's murdered innocents, correct?"

"Yeah, that's what I've been doing, Terumi-san." Naruto confirmed. It's a good thing the Hokage decided to go along with the deal Gai-sensei worked out for us, 'cause I really think we're gonna kick ass and free your country from that Yagura bastard." _Even if they've gotta be all secret and covert about it, Gai-sensei and Kakashi-san and Kurenai-san are being a big help with all of thus. Kinda sucks that I'm not allowed to wear my Konoha headband while I'm doing all of this though_. Naruto reached up and readjusted the slashed Kiri headband Mei had loaned him; even after wearing it for several days the new headband just did not feel right._ I mean, I get that I couldn't openly fight as a Konoha ninja when Konoha's supposed to not be involved in this civil war, but it still sucks that I don't get to wear my real headband. I worked really hard to earn that thing!_

Mei turned a radiant smile on the boy. "Naruto-kun, I've told you before that it is perfectly alright to call me Mei."

Naruto quickly ducked his head so the beautiful woman would not notice he was blushing, and muttered something vaguely incomprehensible. _Kurenai-san told me she's being nice like that to try and get me to do stuff for her or tell her things I shouldn't, but I'm still kinda embarrassed by how she's always acting with me. Good thing TenTen-chan's not here to see this…_

"Kurenai-san, Kakashi, and I are continuing to go out as well, using the transformation jutsu to imitate Naruto." Gai cut in, saving the boy from having to come up with some sort of response the Mei's flirtatious behavior. "It has done quite a bit to enhance Naruto's reputation; he is seen in several different places at once; such a deception would be foiled quite quickly if we tried to carry it out for a long time, but for the moment there are some rather impressive rumors about just how many different skills Naruto possesses."

Any further discussion of Naruto's role in the ongoing struggle with Yagura was cut off when Ao suddenly stiffened in his seat, then turned to face his commander. "Terumi-sama, I just spotted Zabuza Momochi and three other ninjas ten kilometers away from our camp. I believe he is attempting to locate us." The man's visible eye flicked the Konoha ninjas, and he gave the slightest of flinches.

"That eyepatch…" Gai looked at the patch in question, a focused expression of deep thought on his face. "It is not covering a missing eye, is it?"

"The Hyuuga clan lost one of the main family members several years ago during a mission near Water Country." Kakashi said conversationally. "They never recovered the body, and as I recall it caused quite a stir. After all, the Hyuuga and Konoha are very protective of the Byakugan; the thought that someone might have managed to steal a Byakugan off the corpse of a dead main branch member was quite distressing." Kakashi shrugged. "I'm not sure why I'm mentioning this though, I'm sure it has absolutely nothing to do with anything we were wondering about how Ao-san can see things that are ten kilometers away from him even though he's surrounded by rather solid walls on all sides. After all, there is a window right there." Kakashi pointed out the room's sole window, which was nowhere near Ao's current line of sight. With a shrug, Kakashi added. "Then again, if anyone did manage to get a Byakugan and implant it in their body it would be a little hypocritical of me to make a big deal out of it…" The eccentric jonin tapped the headband covering his sharingan eye.

"So, what's the big deal with this Zabuza guy?" Naruto demanded, deciding to change the subject since he was a little confused about what was going on in the room. _If Kakashi-san think that Ao's got a Byakugan why doesn't he just say so, instead of being all weird and cryptic about it? Nothing wrong with just taking, the honest direct approach instead of always having to be so damn mysterious._

"Zabuza Momochi was once a the member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, until he attempted to assassinate Yagura two years ago." Mei explained. "Zabuza was impatient; he was too eager to take direct action against Yagura right away rather than waiting until the circumstances were in his favor. It created a split within the rebellion; Zabuza and his followers favored taking immediate action against Yagura, while I felt that attempting to launch a coup against Yagura with our current strength would be suicide. In the end, even though Ao used his talents to help Zabuza get past Yagura's guards and penetrate his defenses, it was futile to attempt to kill Yagura in a one-on-one fight. Zabuza simply does not have the strength to win that battle, and Yagura is far too wary to be caught off guard even by an assassin of Zabuza's skill. After his coup failed, Zabuza left along with a few his most devoted followers; some of them have drifted back to the rebellion over the years, while others have lost their ideals and simply become hired thugs or criminals."

"Terumi-sama." Ao spoke up. "Send me to speak with Zabuza; he will be more inclined to trust me than any other emissary since I once fought by his side, even if I have come to realize that your course of action was the correct one now."

"Do it." Mei confirmed. "Bring him back to the camp if he is looking for us; the only reason he would return to Water Country is to make another attack on the Mizukage, and if we can integrate him into our plans we would gain an advantage." Mei's gaze shifted to the Konoha contingent. "Gai-san, Kakashi-san, Kurenai-san, I must ask you to leave; it will make our discussion with Zabuza less complicated if you are not present. Naruto-kun, you may remain; he will be expecting to meet you in any case, and it would be awkward to explain your absence from such a significant meeting."

"As you wish, Terumi-sama." Ao, shot out the door, moving at full speed to rendezvous with the former rebels. With his Byakugan to guide him Ao was able to move into position to intercept Zabuza and his companions, the Demon Brothers and a rather effeminate-looking young man Ao did not recognize. "Zabuza-san." Ao called out to catch the former Swordsman's attention.

"Ao?" Zabuza halted, regarding the Byakugan user neutrally. "Huh, didn't think you would still be alive. Guess you've been with Terumi and her bunch ever since Yagura got away from me. Well, I want to talk to her, so get you might as well take me there. Didn't know where exactly you guys were, but I figured it was somewhere around here and I'd eventually run into some of the rebels, or get a chance to kill some of Yagura's tools." With a shrug, Zabuza declared. "Either one would've worked."

"Looks like you haven't changed much, have you Zabuza-san?" Ao regarded his former comrade. "You're still as bloodthirsty and dangerously competent as ever, right? Follow me then; Terumi-sama wants to see you as well."

"Oh, it's Terumi-sama now, is it?" Zabuza asked stressing the honorific. "I never got a -sama when you were working for me." The Demon of the Mist gave a disinterested shrug. "Well, let's get on with this."

Ao led Zabuza and his companions back to the rebel camp; much like when he brought back the Konoha ninjas earlier in the week, the return of the infamous rebel brought the camp's usual activities to a halt as everyone paused to gawk at the man and Ao paused to yell at the gawkers. The group quickly made their way to Mei's headquarters, and Zabuza slouched down into one of the open chairs, while the effeminate young man stood at his right hand and the Demon Brothers stood behind him. "It's been a while, Mei-san." The former member of the Seven Swordsman said, looking over the rebel leader. "You remember Gozu and Meizu, the Demon Brothers, and the boy is Haku; you'll like the kid, he's got a Kekkei Genkai."

"Zabuza-san." Mei answered with a smile. With a wave of her hand, the elegant woman indicated Naruto. "I'm sure you've already heard the rumors I have so carefully cultivated, so allow me to introduce Naruto Uzumaki, jinchuriki to the Nine Tailed Fox, and a key element of my plan to remove Yagura from power."

"Hiya, how's it hanging?" Naruto said offering the man a casual wave of his hand. _I don't really know much about what's going on with this guy, so I'll just act like I understand everything that's going on and nod a lot without actually saying anything._

Zabuza looked the boy over critically, and gave a disinterested shrug. "Kid doesn't look all that dangerous." The Demon of the Mist announced. "Then again, Yagura doesn't look all that scary when he's not pulling out all his nasty jinchuriki tricks."

"Every shinobi knows that outward appearances can be deceptive." Mei agreed. "So, why have you returned, Zabuzu-san? I thought you left Water Country for good after your coup against Yagura failed so spectacularly."

"Yagura just got lucky, the fight easily could have gone the other way." Zabuza scoffed. "I was always planning to come back once I had some time to rebuild my forces and got a bit more funding to make sure things went right."

"Yagura got lucky?" Mei smiled. "Is that why thirty seconds after you went into his office Yagura smashed you through a window and out into the streets of Kirigakure, and then you went running away like a beaten dog?"

"It was a lucky shot, if I'd been half a second faster it would've missed." Zabuza growled, glaring down at the floor. "But who gives a shit about the past? I heard you finally got the guts to make a move against Yagura yourself instead of playing the waiting game like you've been doing for the last couple years. I was in the area, and the guy I was working for was kind of an asshole, so I decided I might as well drop the contract and see what you were up to; having an excuse to kill Gato didn't hurt, he was an annoying little prick even if he did pay pretty well."

"I see you have not changed much, Zabuza-san." Mei declared, her smile still in place. "Well, since you came all this way I suppose I could find a place for you within our ranks; you did come here to fight, correct?"

"I might be willing to." Zabuza conceded with a shrug. "Of course, I expect you'll find an appropriate way to reward me for my efforts; you need my skills and you need my reputation back up your little army, and you know it."

_His assassination skills would be a boon to our current plans, and the fact that he has returned from exile to join our ranks will persuade some whose loyalty to Yagura might already be wavering_. "Yagura disbanded the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist after all the trouble you and Kisame caused him; Hikaru and Nobu were both killed, and the rest have scattered. The Seven Swordsmen will need to be rebuilt once Yagura is gone and order has been restored to Kiri; they will also need a new leader."

"So, if I fight for you I get to be top dog of the new Seven Swordsmen? Kisame won't like that."

"Kisame's exile was one of the only issues I agreed with Yagura on. The man is a monster, and he will have no place in the new Kiri I plan to build once the long nightmare of Yagura's madness finally comes to an end. Once the Swordsmen have been rebuilt I intend to send them after Kisame to recover Samehada and put an end to him; he's too dangerous to be allowed to roam freely, even as a rogue ninja."

"I don't mind getting rid of Kisame, but you're gonna take all the fun out of Kiri by the time you're done, aren't you?" Zabuza declared disdainfully. "That's what always bugged me about you; sure, Yagura's gone way too far with the crazy killing, but you'll make the next generation of Kiri ninja a bunch of weaklings if you have your way. The shinobi world is a bloody place, and our ninja need to be prepared to deal with that."

"They will be prepared." Mei declared confidently. After shooting a quick glance at Ao, the woman continued. "You are not the first person to say that Yagura's bloodthirsty methods help to toughen the shinobi of Kirigakure. I do not agree; bloodshed and murder do not make people strong, they just waste lives that could be put to better uses. Naruto-kun has defeated many of Yagura's servants despite being trained in the 'weak' methods of Konoha." With a tight smile, Mei fixed Haku with a direct look and asked. "Tell me, Zabuza-san, how did you train Haku? Have you drenched his hands in blood, the way Yagura did with you, or did you choose a different path?"

Zabuza remained silent, but his refusal to answer and the sullen glare he fixed Mei with gave away the truth; she was right. Zabuza finally broke his silence with an annoyed growl. "Let's stop wasting time rehashing old arguments and start talking about how we're going to take Yagura down. What's the plan and who am I supposed to kill?"

* * *

"So … this is it, isn't it?" Naruto asked, a rare bit of uncertainty and fear creeping into the boy's voice as he stared into the fog-shrouded bamboo forests that would soon become a battleground. "Yagura's guys are supposed to be showing up any time now, and then we'll be in a big, nasty battle."

"Yes, we will." Gai replied, his face concealed behind the mask of Kiri hunter ninja and his distinctive green spandex replaced with a nondescript black outfit; Kakashi stood nearby in similar identity-concealing attire. Instead of being able to see it Naruto just had to imagine the bright smile on Gai's face when his sensei assured him. "Do not worry Naruto, Kakashi and I will make sure nothing happens to you!"

"Yeah, I know." Naruto said, a note of gratitude in his voice. The boy took a deep breath, and a moment later he was back to his normal, confident self. "I still can't believe Terumi-san wants me to stay out of the fight though; I mean, I wanted to take Yagura down and I know I've helped do that by pretending to be her secret weapon, but it kinda sucks that I won't actually get to do anything. Yeah, I'll be sending in a bunch of shadow clones to cause more chaos and confusion, but I really wanted to be the one to take out Yagura."

"You can't beat Yagura." Kakashi pointed out. "Even if she didn't manage to capture you Yugito still kicked your ass, and she's a lot less dangerous than Yagura is. He would also be fighting to kill instead of trying to take you alive; that makes a big difference."

"I've gotten a lot stronger since then!" Naruto whined. "I mean, I know how to use wind chakra now, and I've got a bunch of new jutsu, and you've taught all kinds of new stuff Gai-sensei! I know I'm not a jonin, but I'm strong enough to win this fight! I mean, you and Kakashi-san and Terumi-san and everyone else are gonna be fighting too, it's not like I'd be trying to take the bastard on all by myself!"

"Yes, you have grown much stronger over the past several months, my brilliant young student." Gai agreed. "But you will have years of hard work ahead of you before you can even think to challenge someone like Yagura on an even footing."

"But – but Gai-sensei, I made a promise!" Naruto looked at the impassive mask covering the face of his jonin-sensei imploringly. "You always said that if you give a promise and you really, really mean it then you've gotta keep it, no matter what!"

Gai was silent for a moment, and then with a note of resignation in his voice said. "Naruto, before the battle starts there is a new jutsu I would like to teach you."

"Really?" Naruto asked, brightening up considerably. "Awesome! You don't teach me a lot of ninjutsu or genjutsu, so I bet it's gonna be something really awesome, right? I'll bet I can totally kick that bastard's ass with this! So, so if I manage to learn the jutsu then will you guys let me beat up Yagura!"

Gai went through the jutsu's hand seals with slow, exaggerated care, and then announced. "Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings Jutsu." _I hate to do this to Naruto, but Kakashi, Kurenai, and I all agreed that if it looked like Naruto might try to engage Yagura despite my orders to the contrary it would be better to remove him from the battlefield. His fires of youthful passion are strong indeed, but sometimes his passion blinds him to the reality of his limitations._

"Huh?" Naruto blinked in surprise as he felt the genjutsu taking hold and his surroundings began to shift and blur until suddenly he was back in Konoha at one of the training grounds he and TenTen often worked at. "Aw man, that was a dirty trick, Gai-sensei. Now I'm never gonna get to fight that Yagura bastard!"

"I will take care of him." Gai declared, picking up his enscrolled student. The jonin looked back at Kakashi and added. "I should be back in a few minutes, do not let the battle start without me. If I cannot defeat more enemies than you, my eternal rival, then I will do one hundred thousand push ups!" Gai paused, and then amended. "Well, the quality of opponents should matter too; genin will be worth one point, chunin are worth two, and jonin will be worth four. I know we promised to let Mei take him down herself if possible, but if either of is the one to defeat Yagura he will be worth twenty points."

"Yeah, sure, whatever you say Gai." Kakashi agreed disinterestedly, lamenting the fact that openly reading Makeout Paradise would carry the risk of giving away his identity. Gai gave Kakashi a thumbs-up, no doubt smiling brilliantly behind his face-concealing mask, and then picked up his student and rushed off into the woods towards a large hill in the back of the rebel lines.

"Naruto had to be removed from the frontlines." Gai informed Kurenai upon his arrival at his fellow jonin's position further back in the bamboo forest, though the fact that Gai had the boy in question strapped across his back made it rather obvious Naruto was not going to be participating in the fight. "His fires of youthful passion are normally one of the things that make him a truly brilliant ninja, but if he were to participate in the coming battle he would seek out Yagura." Gai sank down into one of the nearby chairs. "I have a great deal of faith in Naruto, but he would not win a battle against the Mizukage."

"I'll watch over him." Kurenai assured the boy's sensei. "I'll be working on the genjutsu of the Nine Tailed Fox; none of the Kiri ninjas have seen it before so they need my help. We should be a safe distance away from the main battlefield, so Naruto should not be at risk if he's with me."

"I thought the same thing, which is why I brought him to you." Gai declared.

"I see." Kurenai looked the boy over. "Nice genjutsu work Gai-san, I've never seen you use one before." _Not the best I've ever seen, or even above average for a jonin, but still reasonably proficient, and I can hardly criticize Gai-san for trapping the boy in a harmless illusion rather than beating him into unconsciousness. Genjutsu is by far the best way to subdue an opponent without doing serious harm to them._

Gai nodded, and Kurenai suspected that if face were not still covered by the borrowed mask she would have seen a brilliant smile on the man's face. "Very well, Kurenai-san, I entrust my beloved student to you! Your fires of youthful passion will no doubt enable you to protect him in the face any threat! Keep him safe from our most unyouthful opponents, and do not remove the genjutsu unless you feel it is vital to the success of our mission. Now, I must ensure that my eternal rival has not taken advantage of my absence to gain an unfair lead in our contest to defeat as many of Yagura's minions as possible!" With a sudden burst of speed, Gai shot off into the forest once more, heading back to his eternal rival; promising himself that Kakashi would not be able to shift the balance of their ongoing contest of ninja might this day.

Kurenai watched the jonin depart with a bemused look. _Why is it that so many of the full jonin are so eccentric? Kakashi-san has his obsession with Jiraiya-sama's books, I wouldn't be surprised in Asuma Sarutobi smokes in his sleep and Gai is – well, there are no words that can really describe him._ Shaking herself from her musings, Kurenai quickly tossed a plain brown robe over Naruto's distinctive blond hair and orange outfit; explaining the supposed jinchuriki hero of Kiri was behind the frontlines and trapped in a genjutsu would be problematic, so it was better to just bypass the problem entirely by concealing his identity.

"Captain." One of the Kiri ninjas placed under Kurenai's nominal command called out to her. "The outer scouts just sent the signal that Yagura's forces have been spotted. It's time to begin."

"Right." Kurenai gave a sharp nod, and quickly made her way to the three rebel genjutsu specialists. "Now, this is going to be a huge genjutsu, so the three of you will channel your chakra into the jutsu itself, while I handle the shaping and management of the illusion we'll be using. Understood?" The three Kiri rogues nodded. "Good, then let's begin." Kurenai's hands snapped through a long set of seals while her assistants channeled their chakra to her; by the time the jonin was finally prepared to use the jutsu Yagura's forces could easily be seen moving through the bamboo towards the rebel position. "Grand Illusion: Mass Hallucination."

Slowly a perfect replica of the Nine Tailed Fox rose up from the bamboo forest, and Kurenai gave an involuntary flinch as her mind shot back twelve years to the night the Fox attacked Konoha. The effect on Yagura's forces was immediate; from her position on the high ground overlooking the battlefield Kurenai saw the loyalist advance suddenly grind to a halt as terrified ninjas scattered in the face of the Fox's fury. One group of loyalists briefly rallied, only to fall apart when two cloaked figures Kurenai suspected were her fellow Konoha jonin rushed in and quickly dispatched the loyalist leader who had managed to briefly calm his panicked troops. A sudden burst of fog and the appearance of several large mirrors of ice identified other islands of organized resistance being crushed by the rebel forces. "It looks like this plan just might work; I wonder Yagura will show himself."

The answer to Kurenai's question came moments later when a soft but powerful voice carried across the battlefield. "Suiton: Exploding Water Shock Wave." Moments later Kurenai saw a gigantic tidal wave begin to sweep across the bamboo forests, and could vaguely make out a single figure standing on the crest of the wave.

"Yagura." Kurenai declared, here eyes fixed on the Three Tails jinchuriki.

* * *

Naruto went through the motions of trying to break the genjutsu once more, but he still had no luck with the task. "Man, Gai-sensei's not a genjutsu master like Kurenai-san, I've never even seen him use genjutsu before, but he's still way too good for me. Dammit, I'd do anything just to break this stupid genjutsu and get into the fight! I bet I'm gonna miss the whole thing just sitting here stuck in a genjutsu, and that's gonna suck so much!" Naruto let out a frustrated growl, and forgot all the advice he had gotten breaking genjutsu as he just tried to smash the illusion with brute force. "Maybe if I can just get more chakra I'll break this stupid thing! There's gotta be some way to do it!"

Naruto continued to struggle against the genjutsu, but he simply did not have the skill to break the illusion surrounding him. The boy's frustration continued to mount and gradually transformed into anger, and then rage. "Dammit! I can't believe they left me stuck in this stupid genjutsu when I oughta be out there, fighting Yagura with the rest of them! I know I'm just a genin and they're jonin, but I can still help! Stupid genjutsu! Why won't you break!" Naruto slammed a fist into the illusionary ground he stood upon. "Even if they all outrank me Gai-sensei and Kakashi-san and Kurenai-san are still my comrades, and I won't let this dumb illusion stop me from helping them!"

Naruto blinked in surprise when he felt a sudden, odd disturbance in his chakra, almost like how it felt when Kurenai-san or somebody else broke a genjutsu's hold over him. The illusion of the training field shattered, and Naruto suddenly found himself standing in the middle of a nasty looking sewer dominated by the gigantic gate standing in front of him; Naruto tried to get a good look at what was beyond the gate, but it was too dark to see anything. "Wait – what the hell? Is this part of the genjutsu too?"

"Hey, kid." A voice called out from within the cage. "Why don't you come a little closer and let me get a good look at you."

Naruto frowned at the cage; he still was not sure what was going on here, but his instincts told him that the huge locked gates were there for a reason. "Why don't you come a little closer and let me get a look at you instead." Naruto suggested.

A booming, malice-filled chuckle drifted out from behind the bars. "Didn't think you'd fall for that, but it was worth trying. I'd really like to rip your pathetic little body apart, but this damned seal won't let me." The air around quivered with the sound of a massive paw taking a single step forward, and suddenly within the blackness of the cage Naruto saw a pair of bright red eyes burning malevolently. Another thudding footstep reverberated through the area, and Naruto saw the vague outlines of a massive fox head, teeth bared in a horrifying expression halfway between a smile and a snarl.

_Shit! That thing's teeth are bigger than me!_ Naruto gave a sharp jerk of his head as he recovered from his initial shock at the beast's size; the Fox was so massive he could not even see most of its body, still hidden within the dark depths of the cage. The nine tails flailing about behind the beast were easy enough to spot though, and from there it was not difficult to figure out the rest. "You – you're the Nine Tailed Fox, aren't you? What kind of weird genjutsu did Gai-sensei stick me in?"

"This is no genjutsu, boy." The Fox growled. "Breaking a genjutsu is child's play for a being of my power and magnificence. All I had to do was disturb your chakra network slightly, just like anybody else would when breaking a genjutsu placed on another person."

"Oh – well why didn't you ever do that any other time I was caught in genjutsu!" Naruto demanded.

"Why should I go out of my way to help you, brat?" The Fox snarled. "If you're too pathetic to take care of yourself I'm not going to waste my time babysitting you. I might be stuck in your body, but eventually you're going to die, and then I'll be free to re-manifest myself after a while. When you die I'll die too, but to a being as ancient and powerful as I am death is just an inconvenience. I've got no reason to help you, though if you take this damned seal off I might do something to repay you for the favor."

"Yeah, well if you're so freaking powerful why the hell are you still stuck in my body?" Naruto shot back. "You know, I've had to put up with a lot of crap because of you! If I had a way to get rid of you without killing myself I'd probably do it, but I don't so it looks like I can't get rid of you! So, as long as you're taking up space in my body, I think you oughta find some way to make up for it!" Fixing the Fox with a glare, Naruto shouted. "You owe me rent, you stupid Fox! You can start by giving me you chakra and dispelling any genjutsu that affect me from now on; if you don't I'll come into that cage and kick your furry ass!"

The Fox remained silent for a moment and then let out a deep, menacing sound. At first Naruto thought the sound the Fox growling at him, but the boy soon realized that it was actually chuckling, and soon the Fox slipped into full-out laughter. "You stupid little brat." The Fox declared once it finally stopped laughing at him. "You have no idea how easily I could crush you if the Fourth's seal wasn't protecting you. Still, you've got guts and I respect that,, and I suppose if I let you go on being so pathetic people might start to think I'm as weak as you are. Alright, you want my chakra, here it is; in fact, I'll even let you have some more any time you ask nicely enough. Just remember, you're nothing without my help, you worthless little whelp." A tide of dark reddish-orange chakra began to flow out from under the gate.

"Hey, I was kicking ass before I even knew you were here, you stupid old Fox." Naruto shot back moments before the chakra enveloped him. _Whoa! This is way more than I used in that fight with Yugito! Now I'm definitely gonna kick Yagura's ass!_

* * *

Yagura's water attacks had transformed the battlefield, changing a large portion of it from a bamboo forest to a massive lake. In many ways this alteratuib had weakened Yagura's forces further; the confusion within his already scattered and disorganized units had only become worse after the sudden change in terrain. Had it been another villages forces fighting the battle many of the ninja would have drowned, but Kiri shinobi were trained to master water walking much sooner than ninja from other villages. Even then, the unexpected tidal wave inflicted a modest number of casualties on both sides.

The losses Yagura's attack inflicted on his own men did not bother the Mizukage; anyone weak enough to die from such a simple attack was worthless as a tool anyway. It was the first and oldest rule of the shinobi world; the strong survive, and the weak perish. If a few weaklings had to be sacrificed to achieve victory then that was a price he was more than willing to pay. Yagura would protect his nation and the people of Kiri, no matter how high the cost might be.

Yagura could not recall the exact details of when he had grown so hard-hearted, or what had caused the sudden change in his outlook. Once he had been a kind ruler, gentle even by the standards of most shinobi. Perhaps the change had come after the Kaguya clan's attack; maybe seeing the blood-crazed clan try to butcher his people had convinced Yagura that he had been too soft before, that his enemies had mistaken his kindness for weakness. It made sense, but for some reason Yagura could never quite persuade himself that the attack was the real reason everything had changed.

Yagua certainly did not match the image anybody would have expected of the infamous blood-soaked tyrant of Bloodmist Village. He was short and slender, and his face looked far too smooth and youthful for his thirty-five years; more than one ignorant visitor had mistaken the Mizukage for a young genin. His simple black and green outfit hardly matched what most would expect a Kage to wear, and the hooked staff he wielded with deadly grace looked far too large for a person of his size and build to use. Zabuza was not the first ninja to judge Yagura by his appearance and think him weak and easily beaten, but every ninja who made that mistake inevitably regretted it.

The beautiful woman who strode confidently across the newly formed lake towards Yagura was not one of the people who had ever made that mistake. "Yagura." Mei called out. "You must listen to me; you are under the control of a genjutsu. You have to fight it, Yagura! I know you can break free!"

"Genjutsu?" Yagura scoffed. "You really expect me to believe that, Mei? I am a jinchuriki, genjutsu has no effect on me. The Three Tailed Turtle would instantly break any genjutsu within moments of somebody trying to place one upon me, even if I couldn't resist it on my own. If you were going to make up a lie to put me off guard, you could have at least come up with something remotely plausible."

"It is not a lie!" Mei insisted. "It is the truth! You are being controlled by someone else!"

"I think not." Yagura declared calmly. "Genjutsu has no effect upon me; you should have realized how pointless trying to frighten me with a mere illusion of the Nine Tailed Fox would be. I will not be fooled by your lies as your followers have been."

"I have not told anyone else what happened to you." Mei said quietly. "If they knew you were being controlled they would try to save you instead of fighting you. We tried to find a way to break the genjutsu – we tried so hard, but – but we can't; every effort, every attempt we've made to free you has failed, Yagura-sama." Mei's eyes hardened in resolve. "So be it then. I had to make one last effort to save you, to free you from this compulsion placed upon you, but – even if I cannot free you, I will not find a way to stop you. I will not let your madness continue any more; I cannot let hundreds of innocents die every year in the fading hope that one day I can find a way to spare your life and restore you to your senses. For the good of the people of Kiri, you must die Yagura-sama."

"You really believe your own lies, don't you Mei?" Yagura declared calmly. "The good of Kiri will be served on this day, for today I will finally put an end to the bloodline curse that has plagued our nation for so long. For so many years our people have lived in fear of those who wield the power of Kekkei Genkai; the Kaguya clan's rebellion killed so many, and now your own revolt has killed more. I respected you once, Mei, but now it is clear to me that Kekkei Genkai can drive even a good person to madness. Today, I will save Kiri, and destroy the bloodline curse once and for all!"

"Yoton: Lava Bullet Jutsu." Mei took a deep breath and spat several globs of lava at the Mizukage. _I suppose I should have expected he would turn the battlefield into a lake; with several feet of water between me and the ground I cannot use many Earth jutsu, which would give me an advantage against a water user like Yagura. Still, my lava attacks mix fire and earth, so they should be more than a match for his water jutsu._

Yagura only needed a single hand seal to activate his own jutsu. "Suiton: Water Dragon Jutsu" A huge mass of water rose from the lake and shaped itself into the form of a dragon, and with contemptuous ease batted the lava bullets aside. Mei unleashed a blast acidic mist with her Boil Kekkei Genkail the acid mist disrupted the water dragon and continued towards Yagura himself.

Mei was not about to give the Mizukage a chance to avoid her acid mist; the rebel leader quickly produced another jutsu. "Yoton: Demonic Melting Jutsu." Mei unleashed a wave of lava from her mouth, aiming it in a wide arc above Yagura so that the lava would come down on him from above while also striking behind and to each side of the Mizukage. _Now he cannot try to jump over my acid mist or the lava will get him, and unless he is even faster than I remember him being the only way he can direction he can move in to dodge my lava attack would bring him straight into my acid mist._

When the lava struck the water it unleashed a wave of steam, and Mei lost sight of the Mizukage. The woman quickly leapt back from the area until she was clear of the sudden fogbank her attack had created, watching carefully for any sign of the Mizukage. _It looked like my attack was a direct hit, but until I see his body with my own eyes I will not believe that Yagura is dead._

Mei's caution proved to be most prudent when the fog slowly cleared to reveal that a large turtle shell occupied the space where Yagura had been when her attack hit. After a few moments, the shell slowly folded in upon itself to reveal that Yagura had taken on an animalistic appearance and was covered in a cloak of chakra so thick it was solid black; three spiked chakra tails thrashed in the water behind the jinchuriki. Yagura's features were almost completely obscured by the cloak of thick black chakra, and all Mei could see of his face was the unnatural white glow emanating from his mouth and eyes.

"Mei." The Mizukage spoke, his normally gentle voice granted an unnatural timbre by the partial transformation. "You have no idea how long I've been looking forward to this moment. With your death and the end of your mad rebellion I will finally restore peace and prosperity to Kiri, and put an end to the bloodline curse once and for all."

* * *

Kurenai grimaced down at the battlefield; Yagura's forces were still in a state of chaos, and the efforts of Kakashi, Gai, and Zabuza ensured that any time the chain of command began to reestablish itself chaos returned to Yagura's ranks after the three lauched a precise and overwhelming attack on whatever commander had taken charge of the situaiton. However, while Yagura's forces were still disorganized and uncoordinated, their raw numbers were still more than enough to overwhelm the rebels if they managed to restore order to their ranks. The longer the fight between Mei and Yagura dragged out, the more time his army would have to recover from their initial shock, counter the genjutsu, and launch a devastating counter-attack.

Any further consideration of the tactical situation came to an abrupt end when Kurenai heard a string a foul curses burst out of the woods on the genjutsu team's flank. "Ow! Dammit! This really fucking hurts! Why the hell did I decide that it was a good idea to climb up this big damn hill when I've got a pair of busted knees? There were plenty of ninja who didn't get their knees melted off by a freaking lava blast, but no, I had to up and go on this little adventure in climbing up a steep incline instead of sending someone else. I swear, I'd switch sides, except then the rebels would probably make me climb back down this damn hill all over again!"

"Himura-san, take over the genjutsu." Kurenai ordered one of her subordinates. "By now you should know enough about what the Nine Tailed Fox looks like to be able to keep the illusion in working order for a while, and it sounds like we've got trouble to deal with." Kurenai left the three other genjutsu users behind, and rushed into the woods, looking for the cursing intruder. _Judging from what she was saying she's one of Yagura's loyalists. One ninja is no threat to the four of us, but if I don't stop her she might distract the others from the genjutsu, and if the Fox illusion falls apart Yagura's forces will rally and the entire battle will be lost._

Kurenai came to a halt when she found the intruder, a woman in a simple black outfit with very short black hair and the unmarred headband of one of Yagura's loyal servants. The woman was limping slightly, and a mixture of pain and anger twisted her face. _She doesn't even see me, this should be easy._ Kurenai's hands flashed through a series of seals before the jonin announced. "Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death."

Kurenai's confident smile soon faded, replaced with confusion when the genjutsu seemed to have absolutely no effect on the woman. The intruder looked around and quickly located the Konoha jonin, then smirked. "So, guess you finally noticed me cursing up a storm, rebel. Nice try with the genjutsu, but it turns out that having my knees get so damaged not even a medical ninja could put them back together has a bit of an unexpected side benefit..."

"Of course." Kurenai hissed. "Physical pain is one of the best ways to disrupt a genjutsu."

"Yup." The loyalist agreed. "Should've thought about that sooner; I pretty much gave up on my ninja career once I got half-crippled. However, it turns out nobody can make a genjutsu stick to me, no matter how hard they try; I'm just in too much damn pain all the time for any illusions to work." The woman shrugged. "Looks like I've got a future as a ninja after all; even if I can barely stand to move, the fact that I can ignore even the highest-level genjutsu makes me a big asset. Plus, you genjutsu types are usually helpless against anyone who isn't affected by all your tricks, so even at my current level I should be able to take you down."

Kurenai's fingers dived into her pouch of ninja tools, and she sent several shuriken flying at the woman. _I'm not sure what her skills are, but with all the time she's spent complaining about her knees I bet if I can force her to move around a lot she'll be out of the fight pretty quickly. Not being able to use genjutsu on her is a problem, though._

The intruder drew out a kunai, and batted the weapons aside with contemptuous ease. "Before I lost my knees I was one hell of a kunoichi, you know." The woman said conversationally. "I'd probably have made jonin by now, but when they're handing out promotions everyone just seems to skip over the chick with the creaky legs that can't stand up for five minutes without wanting to pass out." With a shrug the woman added. "By the way, I never introduced myself, did I?" Casually pointing her kunai at her own chest, the woman said. "My name's Saki Kato, who the hell are you?"

Kurenai shifted position and unleashed another barrage of shuriken, testing the woman's movements and reaction time. _She's probably exaggerating when she talks about just how hindered she is by her injuries, she wouldn't still be an active-duty ninja or out on the battlefield if she was completely incapable of performing the basic tasks expected of any kunoichi. Once I have a good idea what her capabilities are I'll be able to work out the best way to beat her._

"So," Saki continued, not even interrupting her conversation as she once more deflected Kurenai's thrown weapons with ease. "Guess you're not the talkative type, are you? Not even gonna give me your name?" When Kurenai did not answer after a few moments, Saki continued talking. "Anyway, all this crap started when I have a run with the jinchuriki you guys have on your side. Where the hell is he anyway?" When Kurenai ignored the question in favor of launching another set of shuriken at the loyalist, Saki continued her stream of conversation while deflecting the thrown weapons with casual ease. "Anyway, I decided to embellish my encounter with him a bit, because it really wasn't all that exciting. Then, next thing I know I'm some kind of war hero since I survived a run-in with the Nine Tails, and then I end up getting dragged along with the field army instead of being left of garrison duty like I was supposed to be. Now, at first I thought this was a complete disaster, but then when you guys pulled your genjutsu trick and it didn't work on me, I realized that if I could take the lot of you out then I'd clench my position as a valuable asset to Kiri. Then maybe Yagura'll decide it's worth looking around for a medic who's good enough to fix my damn knees up properly, and I can finally get back to having a decent ninja career."

Kurenai began performing the hand seals for another genjutsu, and Saki scoffed. "I already told you, genjutsu won't work on–" Saki's cut her own statement off when Kurenai suddenly stopped performing seals and rushed forward in a charge, catching the other woman off guard. _Shit, she's as fast as I was in my prime!_ Before Saki's damaged legs could even begin shifting to a defensive position, Kurenai closed in on her and slammed a side kick right into the woman's right knee. "Fuck!" Saki shrieked, dropping to the ground and clutching her knee, her eyes involuntarily tearing up from the pain.

"Let me give you two pieces of advice." Kurenai said calmly. "First, never underestimate an opponent; I might be a genjutsu specialist, but I'm also quite skilled with taijutsu and when I need to I can move very fast, as you no doubt just noticed. Second, in the future you probably shouldn't give long, rambling speeches about how much you're knees hurt and how vulnerable they are, because then someone might just decide to hit you there."

"I'll keep those things in mind." Saki groaned. "Hey, you rebels got a policy on surrendering? I mean, I'm pretty sure I've lost the fight by this point, and I'm really not all that keen on the whole concept of dying."

Before Kurenai could answer the woman's question her carefully honed instincts began screaming of danger, and massive wave of malevolent chakra swept through the area. _That chakra – it feels exactly like when the Fox attacked Konoha twelve years ago, and it came from right where I left Naruto! _Kurenai watched in horror as the orange-clad boy, cloaked in the chakra of the Nine Tailed Fox, burst out from the bamboo forest, rushing with impossible speed towards the lake where Yagura and Mei were locked in battle. _He's moving so fast, I don't think I could catch up with him in time, and I've still got to secure this prisoner. Besides, I don't know how long the others can keep the genjutsu up without me, and if the genjutsu fails we'll lose the battle for sure. Kakashi, Gai, I hope you can take care of Naruto, because there's nothing I can do._

* * *

"Yagura! Where the hell are you, you bastard!" Naruto shouted, barreling through the bamboo forest and out onto the newly-formed lake that dominated the battlefield. Ninja on both sides halted their engagements to stare in shock at the boy, clad in a bubbling cloak of orange chakra, with three fully-formed tails lashing behind it. "Yagura!" The boy roared once more, searching madly for his target.

It was a struggle for Naruto to think of anything beyond his burning hatred for his fellow jinchuriki. _That bastard murdered thousands of innocent people for no reason at all! It's guys like Yagura that make people hate all jinchuriki; if people like him weren't around the rest of us wouldn't have it so bad! I'll make him pay for everything he's done! For all the innocent lives, all the suffering, everything!_ Naruto's rage found a physical expression as the boy spotted a nearby group of Yagura's shinobi and the jinchuriki lashed out at them, extending arms of pure chakra to claw at the ninja. Naruto's speed and unexpected range of his attack caught the squad of chunin off guard, and before they could even try to dodge the attack Nartuo's chakra claws ripped the life from them.

Then the jinchuriki saw what he knew must be his quarry, and with a sudden leap Naruto veritably flew across the battlefield, sailing over another squad of loyalists engaged in battle with a pair of cloaked and masked figures. Had the boy been in his right mind, he would have recognized the two men as Gai and Kakashi. The two jonin watched the boy's flight in horrified fascination, and then quickly dispatched their opponents before rushing after the wayward jinchuriki.

Naruto landed dozens of meters away from his target, but sheer momentum caused the chakra-cloaked boy to slide along the surface of the water until he came to a halt at Mei's side. The woman instinctively recoiled from the boy's demonic chakra aura, staring in shock at the virtually unrecognizable jinchuriki. The subtle, whisker-like markings on his face had become thick black lines, his canines had elongated into vicious fangs, and his eyes had become blood red with slit, bestial pupils. "N – Naruto-kun?" Mei asked uncertainly.

"Yagura!" The boy shouted, causing the very air around him to ripple with unleashed chakra. Mei quickly jumped clear of the boy; she wasn't sure how much control he had over himself in his current state, but years of carefully honed ninja instincts were screaming at her to get away from his malevolent chakra aura.

"Ah, you must be the famous Naruto Uzumaki." Yagura said conversationally, his own, thick black chakra cloak still in place. "I was wondering when you would finally show yourself. I must confess, I am – disappointed. I expected the boy who would dare to challenge me would have enough control to not be almost completely taken over when controlling a mere pittance of his beast's power. You haven't even managed to move past the initial cloak version yet, and you're barely more than a wild beast."

"Yagura!" The Fox jinchuriki roared once more, too far gone to care about the more experienced demon host's words. "I'm going to kill you! You'll pay for what you've done!"

"Many have said that, and none of them beat me." Yagura shot back. The Mizukage lifted a hand and confidently beckoned the boy to come towards him. "Well, Uzumaki, let's see if you're any better than the others were."

* * *

**A/N:** And it is time for the big fight everybody has been anticipating since the start of this arc: Naruto vs. Yagura. Without giving away too much, I think that the finish I've got in mind for this battle should be quite nice.


	11. The Death of Yagura

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Naruto

* * *

The two jinchuriki faced each other, one clad in the chakra of the Three Tailed Turtle, the other surrounded by the orange energy of the Nine Tailed Fox. Yagura would brook no threat to his power; an attack on the Mizukage was an attack upon all of Kiri, and Yagura responded brutally to anyone who harmed his people. The cycle of murder unleashed by those who possessed Kekkei Genkai would end this day, and anyone who dared to stand in his way would die before the unmatched might of the Mizukage and the Three Tailed Turtle. Naruto's rage was the equal of Yagura's grim resolve; Naruto refused to allow any more innocents to die, and he was determined to make Yagura pay for his crimes with his life.

The boy struck first, rushing forward with a furious roar and lashing out with a chakra-coated fist. Yagura easily dodged the blow, smoothly ducking down and shifting the right to line up his counter-attack. One of Yagura's three spiked chakra tails lashed out, slamming into Naruto's body and sending him skimming along the surface of the newly formed lake. A direct hit from such a powerful blow likely would have disabled or even killed an ordinary ninja, but between his protective chakra cloak and the rapid healing provided by the Nine Tailed Fox Naruto suffered was barely fazed by the powerful blow, and the boy quickly returned to his feet.

The young jinchuriki tensed when another ninja landed by his side, and his chakra claws almost shot forward to rip out the new arrival's throat before the woman spoke and Naruto realized that the new arrival was Mei. "Naruto-kun, you should not be here." The woman's ever-present smile looked particularly grim. "However, now that you are here, we need to work together against Yagura if we are to have any hope of beating him. A straightforward charge just is not going to-"

Ignoring the woman's attempt to create a plan for a coordinated attack on Yagura, Naruto rushed in once more, letting out a battle roar that nearly knocked Mei off her feet with its sheer power. The young jinchuriki was too far gone within the Fox's animalistic rage to work alongside another person as part of a team; the only part of his psyche that remained relatively intact was the burning rage the boy directed at his fellow jinchuriki.

As he charged Naruto snapped his arms forward, and his chakra claws extended several meters beyond the boy's body to slash at Yagura. The Mizukage dodged the left claw with contemptuous ease, and then shocked Naruto by managing to grab the right chakra claw and use it to yank the boy towards him. The off-balance Uzumaki stumbled towards Yagura, and took a vicious slash across the face from the Mizukage's chakra claws, followed by a powerful kick to the guts that lifted Naruto off the water and sent him flying back towards Mei.

The Mizukage started forward to finish of the downed jinchuriki, but Mei rushed to Naruto's side and unleashed a wave of acidic mist, forcing Yagura to fall back. Naruto let out a groan of pain and slowly picked himself up off the water, and Mei gave a slight involuntary flinch when she saw that Yagura claw strike had lain most of the left side of the boy's face open; both Naruto's cheek and jaw bones were clearly visible, and the boy had barely avoided losing an eye. With the power of the Nine Tailed Fox flowing through him the wounds quickly healed, and in a matter of seconds Naruto's face was whole once more; there was not even a scar to mark where the vicious wound had been.

Before Naruto could resume his attack on Yagura, Gai and Kakashi arrived on the battlefield and made their way to the boy's side. Naruto did not even acknowledge the presence of his two trainers, his bestial eyes fixed on the last place Yagura had been before Mei's fog of acidic vapor separated the two. "Naruto!" Gai called out trying to catch the attention of his student. When the boy did not respond, Gai hesitantly put a hand on the boy's shoulder, hoping the touch would gain Naruto's attention where words had failed.

Naruto's response was immediate, and it was only due to years of experience and training that Gai managed to avoid the sudden swipe of Naruto's claws; had he not dodged the blow Naruto's attack would surely have eviscerated him. A second later the boy's eyes locked on Gai's and widened slightly in recognition, and the boy growled out something that sounded more like a warning than an apology. "Don't startle me like that again, Gai-sensei." Naruto's eyes swept over the three more experienced ninja. "Stay out of my way, Yagura's mine." The boy rushed at the Mizukage once more, snarling like an enraged animal.

"Naruto's out of control." Kakashi declared, raising the headband under his mask to reveal his sharingan eye. "He attacked his own sensei with intent to kill just for startling him, and he's obviously not interested in any sort of teamwork. While he's using that much of the Fox's power disabling him and removing him from the battlefield would be difficult, and he's likely to respond with lethal force if we actually try to do so. We can't afford that kind of distraction while we've still got Yagura to deal with."

"Then we will just have to do the best we can to support Naruto and work alongside him, even if he is barely in control of himself and uninterested in cooperation." Gai responded. "Even in his current state, I have absolute faith that Naruto will do the right thing and support his comrades in battle if we fight at his side."

"Between the four of us we should be able to handle Yagura." Mei agreed. "And even if he in not control, Naruto's actions are quite predictable in his current state; he just charges straight in and attacks over and over again, like a rabid fox." Yagura knocked the boy in question sprawling once more, but Naruto recovered and was back on his feet before Yagura could move in and exploit the boy's temporary disadvantage. "Naruto seems to be able to take quite a few hits from Yagura with no ill effects, so I would suggest that the next time he charges in and occupies Yagura we move in and attack from the flanks while the Mizukage is distracted by dealing with Naruto."

"I agree." Gai said. "It is not the most detailed plan, but it seems like the best strategy we can pursue under the circumstances." Naruto let out a bestial roar, and charged Yagura again; as soon as the boy engaged the Mizukage Gai ordered, "Now is our chance to strike. Attack!"

Gai and Kakashi rushed in Yagura's flanks, while Mei stood back to watch for the best moment to strike with one of her Kekkei Genkai. Yagura ducked a claw swipe from Naruto and then quickly looked to both sides to get a fix on the location of the two jonin flanking him, and swiped out with two of his chakra tails. Both Gai and Kakashi dodged the fast but relatively straightforward attacks, and both prepared their own counter-strikes; Gai leapt towards Yagura and prepared to strike with Leaf Whirlwind, while Kakashi prepared a chidori in his right hand.

Before either of the jonin struck, Naruto snapped a high kick at Yagura's head; rather than duck the blow the Mizukage caught Naruto's leg in one of his hands. Yagura then swung Naruto about by his captured leg, using the boy as an improvised weapon to swat Gai and Kakashi aside, and then hurling Naruto at Mei. The young jinchuriki slammed into the rebel leader and the two fell down into the water for a brief instant before Mei was able to untangle herself from Naruto and return to the surface. Had the boy been in his right mind, he would have felt a twinge of guilt over the light chakra burns she had sustained over much of her exposed skin from being in contact with his Nine-Tails cloak for several seconds; even brief exposure to the Fox's chakra was unhealthy.

As it was, the boy was far too occupied with his desire for revenge to notice the damage he had unintentionally inflicted upon the woman, and as soon as he returned to his feet he was charging at Yagura again. Once more Gai and Kakashi tried to support Naruto, but a swipe from one of Yagura's tails sent the boy staggering right into Kakashi's path, and the jonin barely managed to stop his charge and avoid spearing Gai's student with a chidori. A follow-up blow from another of Yagura's tails sent Naruto crashing into Kakashi, and the impact sent the two Konoha shinobi into the water as neither was able support the other's weight while water-walking.

With Naruto and Kakashi out of the way for the moment, Yagura met Gai's attack with one of his own, more than willing to accept a kick from the jonin in exchange for landing a solid blow with one of his chakra-coated fists. Yagura staggered slightly from the sheer force of Gai's kick, but his response sent Gai flying back several meters, and the normally irrepressible jonin was slow to return to his feet. _If I had not managed to roll with that blow I would have several broken ribs right now; as it is one more solid hit to the chest would probably finish me._

When Naruto could not immediately return to the water's surface due to being entangled with Kakashi, the young jinchuriki scrabbled to find some other surface to launch himself off of. Kakashi's eyes widened when the boy suddenly set his feet against the jonin's stomach, and Kakashi let out a pained gasp when Naruto kicked off against him to charge Yagura once more. The boy's feet had shorter chakra claws than his arms, but her still left behind two parallel sets of scratches along Kakashi's stomach, and the jonin felt surprise when he realized how painful the relatively minor wounds were. _I've had far worse injuries that hurt less than this; it must have something to do with the chakra of the Nine Tailed Fox. Naruto might not be so out of control that he'll attack us directly, but he's definitely not thinking about the potential for harming his teammates via collateral damage when he attacks Yagura._

With Gai still recovering from Yagura's blow while the effects of the Fox's chakra and their Naruto-induced injuries temporarily left Kakashi and Mei unable to fight, the boy had to face the Mizukage all by himself once more. This time Yagura caught him off guard by meeting Naruto's charge with one of his own; the two jinchuriki were rushing at each other at a speed no ordinary shinobi was capable of achieving. Yagura surprised the boy by dropping down on all fours at the last second, causing Naruto's attack to go flying over the Mizukage's body. The next moment all three of Yagura's tails lashed out and knocked the boy straight up into the air; before he could even begin to recover from the attack the tails struck several more times, keeping the boy from falling into the water. Without appearing to exert any real effort or focus his attention upon on the task, Yagura used his tails to juggle the boy in the air, rendering Naruto helpless and far too disoriented to attempt to break free or counter-attack.

By this time the boy's more experienced partners had recovered, and were quick to move to the young jinchuriki's assistance. However, Mei had to cut her lava jutsu short when Yagura shifted the position of his tails so that Naruto was now between him and the dangerous woman, effectively blocking her from attacking lest she hit Naruto as well. The two Konoha jonin advanced on Yagura slowly, watching the dangerous jinchuriki carefully; after the way their last two attacks had gone they expected the Mizukage would almost certainly use Naruto against them once more, especially since Yagura had gone to the trouble of capturing the boy instead of merely knocking him out.

However, instead of using Naruto as an improvised weapon once more Yagura began to gather chakra around his mouth, taking advantage of his opponents' focus on the boy. Kakashi's eyes widened in shock as his sharingan showed him that whatever attack Yagura was preparing involved chakra of incredible power and density, the likes of which the odd-eyed jonin had not seen since the Fox's attack on Konoha twelve years ago. "Gai, Mei, scatter!"

The two quickly complied with Kakashi's suggestion; one hardly needed the insight provided by the sharingan to tell that the attack Yagura was currently preparing was bound to be utterly devastating, and none of the ninjas wanted to be on the receiving end of such a blow. The three promply split up, each moving away in a different direction and adding in the occasional leap in a random direction to ensure that Yagura would have a difficult time hitting any of them, and no chance of catching all three with a single attack. Forced to make a decision, Yagura turned his head towards Mei, planning to finally remove the rebel leader that had been a thorn in his side for years.

An instant before Yagura unleashed his blast, Naruto, still bouncing between Yagura's three tails, stole a page from the Mizukage's book by striking Yagura's head with one of Naruto's own chakra tails. While the attack was only a glancing blow that did no real damage, it did deflect Yagura's attack enough that it missed Mei by the barest of margins.

Yagura ceased toying with the boy and wrapped one of his tails around Naruto's feet, dangling him upside-down, in front of Yagura's face. "You are annoyingly persistent." Yagura informed the younger jinchuriki right before he slammed a rib-shattering blow right into Naruto's chest. The boy let out a snarl of pain, and within seconds began coughing up blood. Satisfied that Naruto was out of the fight, Yagura released his hold on the boy, letting him fall into the water. The boy remained floating on the surface, in far too much pain to sustain the concentration needed to continue walking on the water.

"You might wear the headband of one of the rebels, but I know you once came from Konoha." The Mizukage declared. "Perhaps Konoha approves of your presence here, and perhaps not. Either way, I think once I've finished dealing with the legacy of the bloodline curse in Kiri I will send a clear message to the world that outside interference within my realm will not be tolerated. I think I will go to Konohagakure itself and destroy everything and everyone you ever loved; that should be more than enough to send a clear message, and should dissuade the next fool who thinks it would be a good idea to attack my nation and plunge my people into war and death."

Yagura's eyes widened in surprise as Naruto staggered back onto the lake's surface, his crippling injuries already healed, and the boy let out an enraged, bestial howl. The chakra of the Nine Tailed Fox grew thicker and thicker around the young jinchuriki, and bits of Naruto's skin began to burn off as a result of the sheer intensity of the Tailed Beast's chakra. _Oh dear; that could be a bit of a problem._ Yagura regarded the boy with mild alarm. _His skin wouldn't be coming off like that unless he was about to enter a stage two cloak, or possibly even attempt a full transformation. I doubt I could deal with the full unleashed might of the Nine Tailed Fox, especially not with Mei and those two little helpers of hers joining in on the fight. The boy will be completely out of control, but he will still target me before anyone else; even the Fox would realize I am by far the greatest threat. If the Fox defeats me, he would go on a rampage and destroy most of Kiri before someone could stop him, and even if I win taking him down would exhaust me, and I still have a rebellion to crush._

Yagura smiled, and dropped his own chakra cloak. W_ell, good thing I have a way to stop that from happening. _The Mizukage rushed up to Naruto, who was still in the early stages of his transformation, and snapped his hands hands through a complicated series of seals at an incredible speed. "Supreme Jinchuriki Art: Tailed Beast Disruption." Yagura slammed his palm into Naruto's chest, and the young jinchuriki flew backwards as his chakra cloak disappeared, suppressed by the Mizukage's strength of will and a sudden burst of the Turtle's chakra. _By injecting my beast's chakra into Uzumaki's chakra network I can disrupt his ability to contact the Nine Tailed Fox; having another Tailed Beast's chakra in his system will throw the Fox's chakra network into chaos. It's not a perfect solution; there's a bit of cross-contamination, so I won't be able to use the Turtle's power for a few minutes either, but it is better than letting the Nine Tailed Fox go wild. Trying to suppress his power after that transformation had been completed probably would have taken everything I had, and even then, I can't be certain that it would work. Much easier to simply disrupt the boy's connection to his tailed beast before he can do too much damage, and I'll recover from my jutsu's side effects long before Uzumaki regains control of the Fox's chakra._

The three more experienced rebel ninja had returned to the battlefield by this point and quickly rushed to Naruto's side. Kakashi pulled the semi-conscious boy out of the water and quickly looked Naruto over with his Sharingan, then informed his companions. "The chakra of the Nine Tailed Fox seems to have been completely suppressed; Naruto is not even healing quickly like he normally does."

Gai and Mei warily watched Yagura as Kakashi looked over the downed boy, but the Mizukage seemed content to sit back and wait while his opponents tended to Naruto. _He is not using the Three Tailed Turtle's power either; perhaps the jutsu he used on Naruto also suppresses the chakra of his tailed beast as well. In addition, he has been content to let us make the first move, and then counter our attacks for most of the fight; it has worked pretty well so far, so he'll probably stick with that strategy. Further, time is on his side in this clash; the longer we take to defeat him, the more time his army will have to recover._

Naruto groaned as he slowly recovered from the effects of Yagura's suppression jutsu. "Man, that bastard can really hit." Naruto groaned, rubbing water and his own blood off of his face. Noticing the man watching over him, Naruto blinked and said, "Oh, hey Kakashi-san. What'd I miss?"

"Yagura just kicked your ass." Kakashi supplied helpfully. "Then again, he's been kicking all of our asses pretty badly so far. With that chakra surrounding him he's so fast even my sharingan can barely keep up with him, and being able to see the attacks coming doesn't do much good when I can't move fast enough to effectively dodge or counter. Plus, he's been using our crappy teamwork against us; for a while he was actually using you as an improvised weapon and a human shield."

"Yeah, I kinda remember something like that." Naruto grumbled. "Mostly all I remember is being super pissed at Yagura though, and I got enough of the Fox's power to have three tails. That was kinda cool, but obviously I'm gonna need more than that to beat Yagura."

"Naruto." Gai said firmly but kindly. "While you were in your Three-tailed state you injured both Terumi-san and Kakashi. Using the Fox's power to the point where you lose control and injure your comrades is not the way to win any battle"

"What?" Naruto looked at the mentioned shinobi, and flinched when he noticed Mei's chakra burns and the claw marks along Kakashi's stomach. "Um – I – I didn't mean to…" Naruto desperately scrambled to apologize.

"It is fine, Naruto-kun." Mei assured the boy with a kind smile. "Our injuries are minor, and you did not intend to harm either of us. However, given your obvious difficulties with the Fox's power, I think it would be unwise to attempt to use it any more during this fight. We need teamwork and coordination to beat Yagura, and the Fox's prevents you from doing that. Yagura is a master of exploiting weaknesses in his opponent's offensives and creating openings to counter-attack, and when you draw upon the Fox's power you tend to take the direct approach; against a counter-attack master like Yagura launching a reckless, straightforward assault is suicide. Anything less than perfect cooperation will merely allow him to turn our own attacks against us."

"So it's all about teamwork." Naruto replied, nodding vigorously. "I guess that means none of us are good enough to take him out on our own, huh?"

"I hoped I might be." Mei confessed. "However, even if I could win such a battle would be a long, drawn-out affair as I relied on my long range ninjutsu and Kekkei Genkai to slowly wear Yagura down, and by this point we simply do not have the time for such a strategy. We need to finish of Yagura before his army can rally."

"Hmm…" Naruto pondered the matter, and then his eyes brightened in sudden excitement. "So we need perfect teamwork to take this bastard down, huh?" The young jinchuriki grinned. "That gives me a really interesting idea…"

* * *

"No, Naruto-kun!" Mei shouted. "Get back here, you fool!"

"I'm gonna kick Yagura's ass all by myself!" Naruto shouted back, charging at the Mizukage. "Mass Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Hundreds of shadow clones burst into life in a wide circle around Yagura.

Yagura looked over the small army of clones, a bored smile on his face. "How very amusing you are, little Naruto." The Mizukage looked over the horde of orange-clad genin disdainfully. "You can't seriously expect to defeat me with sheer numbers, can you? You might have been able to threaten me by completely giving in to the power of your tailed beast, but without it you're nowhere near my level."

"Oh yeah, we'll see about that!" Naruto and his clones all drew out a single kunai, and then concentrated on the weapon for a moment until the blade begin emitting a blue glow as the boy channeled wind chakra into it. The clones in the rear ranks leapt into the air, moving over the Mizukage to form a rough sphere around Yagura, leaving him no room to dodge by jumping over the attack. "Dodge this, you bastard!" Naruto and his clones lashed out with their kunai, filling the air with so many wind-enhanced kunai that there was no way Yagura could hope to dodge the rain of deadly weapons. _Not even TenTen-chan's Twin Rising Dragons, can get this many weapons in the air moving at a single target at the exact same time._

"Suiton: Water Shell," Water leapt up from the lake and surrounded Yagura easily deflecting and disrupting the momentum of Naruto's barrage of thrown weapons. With a smirk, Yagura performed the second stage of the jutsu. "Exploding Burst." The shell of water exploded outwards, sending deadly high-pressure blasts of water in every direction and striking down dozens of clones. "I told you; even your best attacks stand no chance of seriously harming me. You simply don't have the skill to stand against me."

"I don't care if you're better than me, I'm still gonna take you down!" Naruto shouted. "Even if it costs me my life, I'll find a way to kill you first! I won't let you hurt any more innocent people!"

"Innocent?" Yagura sneered at the boy. "How very naïve of you. Do you think I enjoy killing, that I have slaughtered so many people just for the sheer malicious joy of witnessing their deaths? No. The destruction of the Kekkei Genkai is necessary to preserve the safety and stability of Kiri and, ultimately, the world. I will not permit those who wield the bloodline curse to harm any more of my people, even if the only way to end that threat is through genocide."

"So that makes it okay to kill hundreds of innocent people?" Naruto demanded. "That's insane! What kind of sick bastard are you?"

"I am neither insane nor sick; I merely recognize that in order to defend my people from the dangers of the ninja world I must be willing to make difficult choices." Yagura countered. "I will destroy every single person who wields a Kekkei Genkai if that is what is what must be done to protect the people of Kiri. I would gladly go to Konoha and kill every person you have ever loved, your friends, your family, and even strangers on the street who know nothing more than your name if I could save the life of one citizen of Kiri by doing so. When I became the Fourth Mizukage I swore to protect the people of Kiri until the day I died, and I will uphold that oath!"

"You're the one Kiri needs to be protected from!" Naruto shouted, fury in his eyes. "All that bullshit you just spouted about protecting Kiri at any cost might sound nice, but you've killed lots more of your own people than any of the threats you say you're defending them against! The murderous graduation tests, the Kekkei Genkai massacres, all of it; it's killed loads more people than would have died otherwise!"

"How can you know that?" Yagura shot back. "Yes, the ways of Kiri have been brutal, but it is only through brutality that we can gain the strength to defend ourselves. Kiri is a small village, we lack the numbers of Konoha or Kumo, and we can never hope to match the raw might of those nations. The only way Kiri can defend itself is by making our shinobi better than those from any other village; only the strong can survive in the ninja world. The losers, the dead lasts; they're just worthless ninja who would die in their first real mission anyway, and probably get their betters killed trying to protect them in the process. Yes, my training methods are cruel, but we live in a cruel, heartless world. If Kiri's genin are not prepared to face that reality they will perish. I say the true cruelty is perpetrated by nations like Konoha which produce genin who are untrained and incapable of facing the harsh realities of ninja life, at least the death I bring is swift and merciful."

"It's because of people like you that the shinobi world has so much violence in the first place!" Several dozen of Naruto's clones rushed the Mizukage, determined to pound the man into submission. Yagura casually removed his hooked staff from its place on his back and held in both hands, then began casually twirling about the heavy metal weapon which looked as though it weighed almost as much as Yagura himself. A casual, lightning-fast sweep of the staff knocked aside many of the clones, and the Mizukage continued to inflict more casualties on the clones with his follow-up strikes. Even Yagura's dodges sent clones stumbling into each other, resulting in many clones dispelling each other when they collided.

When the last of the attacking clones fell, Yagura turned to regard the much-reduced army of Narutos. "Is that really all you can do?" Yagura asked. "Just continue tossing clones at me and hope one of them gets a lucky hit in? Your chakra reserves will run dry long before you manage to inflict any significant injuries on me with such a simplistic strategy. I expected Konoha to train their only jinchuriki better than that." Yagura's gaze drifted to the trio of experienced shinobi, who were still yelling at Naruto to fall back and let them take care of the fight. _It is rather curious that they won't take direct action; perhaps they're waiting for the boy to wear me down first? Well, whatever it is they have planned, I should probably get rid of this Uzumaki brat so we can get down to the real fight._

"Suiton: Tsunami Shockwave." Yagura slammed a palm onto the surface of the lake, and sent a massive pulse of chakra into the water. Moments later a ripple of water rose up from the place where Yagura's palm struck, rapidly gaining speed and height as it traveled outward. By the time the tidal wave reached Naruto's line of clones the water far too high to jump over, and moving far too fast for the horde of orange-clad boys to have any hope of outrunning the wave or somehow dodging past it. The sound of dozens of Naruto clones shouting in terror and dispersing accompanied the crash of the tidal wave's impact.

When the water receded the clones were all gone, and the only enemy left standing was a single thoroughly soaked and quite battered Naruto Uzumaki. Much to Yagura's alarm, Mei and her two companions had disappeared along with Naruto's clones. _So that's what they were planning; they wanted me to use a wide-area jutsu that would block my line of sight for a few seconds so they could disappear, then hit me from ambush. That could be problematic; all three of them could do a lot of damage if they manage to get past my defenses and land a full-power attack; the Three Tailed Turtle can only do so much to keep me alive, especially when I'm still cut off from using much of its chakra by my disruption jutsu._

A cruel grin made its way onto Yagura's face as he regarded Naruto. _Of course, they made one mistake; they left the boy out in the open. Many of Terumi's followers are too soft-hearted; someone will step in and try to save the brat's life, and at that point their plans for a sneak attack are ruined and I'll kill all of them._ Yagura grabbed the battered boy by collar of his jumpsuit, and with casual strength hoisted him into the air with a single arm. The Mizukage reached into Naruto's equipment pouch and drew out a single kunai, and then placed the weapon against Naruto's throat. "Any last words, Uzumaki?"

Exactly as Yagura had hoped, the threat to the young jinchuriki drew his would-be ambushers out of hiding. With a smirk, the Mizukage cast the Uzumaki boy aside and turned his attention to Mei and the two shinobi accompanying her. "Suiton: Water Cutter Jutsu." Several tightly concentrated bursts of water shot up from the lake and ripped into the three attacking ninjas, striking with more than enough force the rip the flesh from their bones. The Mizukage gave a grim, satisfied smile when his jutsu struck before any of his three attackers even had a chance to dodge, shredding their bodies and dropping Mei and her companions to the surface of the lake. "And so it ends."

"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" Naruto asked from behind the Mizukage, his words slightly unclear due to a series odd crackling chirps that seemed to be coming from the boy's general direction. "But there are two things you haven't quite figured out yet. First, those people weren't Mei Terumi and her two little helpers." The three downed ninjas dispersed in the telltale puff of smoke that marked a shadow clone. "And second," Yagura whirled around to face the boy. "I'm not Naruto Uzumaki."

Kakashi released his transformation jutsu, revealing his disguised form with a fully prepared chidori in his hand. Yagura was only three meters away and off-balance, far too close to react in time, and chidori was all but impossible to block in any case. The Mizukage tried to dodge the attack, but rapid speed of chidori's thrusting strike left him with too little time to get clear. Yagura did manage to avoid taking the blow straight through his heart as Kakashi had planned; instead, the Konoha ninja's lightning-encased hand slammed into Yagura's right shoulder. The sheer force and penetrating power of the blow destroyed Yagura's shoulder and leaving the Mizukage's right arm uselessly crippled and barely attached to the rest of his body by a few bloody strings of flesh.

The Mizukage quickly backpedaled away, putting some distance between himself and his attacker. _Dammit! I was expecting them to use my area jutsu to disappear and hit me with an ambush, when really they used all of Uzumaki's clones to switch out the real one for one of the more dangerous ninja. That assassination jutsu is nasty; my right arm's useless for fighting or forming seals, but if I can hold out for a bit longer the effects of the suppression jutsu will wear off and the Turtle will be able to heal my arm back into a useful state._ Naruto, Mei, and the other disguised ninja burst out of their hiding places beneath the surface of the water and the three ninjas quickly moved to surround the wounded Mizukage.

Mei made the first move, quickly utilizing one of her Kekkei Genkai. "Yoton: Lava Bullet Jutsu." Before the woman could launch her globs of liquid-hot magma at the wounded Mizukage Yagura dived to the side, taking himself out of the line of fire. Half a second after his near-instinctual dodge, the Mizukage noted two important facts: Mei was not smiling, and she had not produced any actual lava bullets.

Yagura's dodge brought him perilously close to the cloaked ninja and, just as the Mizukage realized he was in a perilous position, the man announced. "Futton: Acid Mist Jutsu," and unleashed a wave of vapor from his mouth. Yagura howled in agony as the acidic fumes burned his skin, and staggered out of the cloud of caustic fog, only to find himself a short distance away from someone wearing the form of Naruto Uzumaki once more.

Instinct brought the Mizukage's right arm up to block the kick, but the shredded and acid-burned flesh refused to respond to his body's call, and as the boy's transformation jutsu released to reveal that he was the second of Mei's companions a powerful kick caught Yagura right on the chin. The force of the blow lifted the Mizukage up off the water's surface, and the masked ninja leapt up to follow him. Yagura's eyes widened in shock when the man took up position right beneath Yagura, and bandages suddenly wrapped themselves around the Mizukage, prompting a scream of pain when they tightened over the jinchuriki's ruined right arm.

"I do not have a hard surface to slam you against, so I am afraid I will simply have to improvise." The attacker amicably informed the Mizukage. Gai opened his second inner gater, and then slammed a series of powerful punches and kicks into the bound and battered Mizukage "Mist Barrage." The Konoha jonin announced, congratulating himself on having the foresight to modify his attack's name so as not to give away his true country of origin. Yagura's burned, beaten, and shattered body plummeted back into the lake with a loud splash. Moments later the waters receded, as Yagura was no longer able to sustain the jutsu that had created the body of water after suffering so many severe and horrifically painful injuries.

Slowly the broken Mizukage forced his battered body to stand once more, coughing up a lungful of blood as he returned to his feet. "I will not-" Yagura let out a sound halfway between a gasp and a groan as agony shot through his body. "I will not let you win this fight. I will do whatever I must to defend the people of Kiri from your madness, Terumi." _My injuries are terrible, but the worst of it will be healed if I just transform completely into the Three Tailed Turtle. The side effects of my suppression jutsu have almost worn off, but it will still be hours before Uzumaki can use his tailed beast; I'm at a temporary disadvantage that will go away in a few moments. I can still win._

"Just shut up already, asshole!" Naruto shouted at the beaten Mizukage, drawing out a kunai and pointing it at Yagura to emphasize his point. "We've already kicked your sorry ass, and if you don't give up right now we're gonna finish the job, bastard!"

"You really are taking this much too personally." A faint smirk made its way onto Yagura's face. "Doesn't Konoha teach its shinobi to be disciplined? From the way you act, it's like I've done you some personal injury." _Perhaps the boy has family among the rebels I've killed? It would explain why he's here fighting me instead of back in Konoha where he belongs._

Naruto's stance relaxed by the slightest of margins, and the boy quietly declared. "Y'know, ever since I was a little kid, I've wanted to be the next Hokage. A lot of people think I won't ever be able to do it, 'cause I'm not some sort of super-elite genius or something, and since I'm a jinchuriki most people would never accept me as a Kage anyway. Then, when I heard about you I thought maybe I had a chance after all; if Kiri would accept a jinchuriki as their Kage then Konoha probably would too. But – but then it turned out you were just a psychotic asshole, and it's because of jerks like you that all the other jinchuriki like me have to deal with so much shit." Naruto glared at the Mizukage his face drawn in a furious snarl. "No matter how much jerks like you mess up my life and jinchuriki look bad, I'm still gonna become the next Hokage, and then I'm gonna protect Konoha from assholes like you who would hurt everyone there!"

"Sorry to disappoint you, Uzumaki, but you will never have the chance to become the next Hokage, because you and these rebels you've thrown your lot in with are going to die here and now, at my hands." Yagura reached out for the power of the Three Tailed Turtle; while the disruption to the Three Tailed Turtle's chakra network had mostly faded, it was still difficult to draw on the Turtle's power, and the process disrupted the flow of chakra within Yagura's body. For a brief moment, the flow of chakra between Yagura and the Three Tailed Turtle came to a complete halt, and then suddenly resumed in a massive burst.

As he regained control of his raging chakra and Turtle's power began to flow through him him once more, Yagura felt a moment of confusion and, for the first time in years, doubt suddenly sprang into his mind. Were the Kekkei Genkai massacres and the bloody graduation ceremonies really necessary to keep the people of Kiri safe, or had he gone too far? Had his determination to keep his people safe from the dangers of the shinobi world somehow become so twisted that he had harmed the very people he swore to protect?

With slowly dawning horror, Yagura realized that was exactly what had happened. He had murdered dozens of Kekkei Genkai wielders, hundreds of shinobi, mostly mere Academy students, and thousands of civilians in the years since the rebellion of the Kaguya clan. _What the hell was I thinking? None of this makes any sense! The Kaguya clan was a group of bloodthirsty maniacs, but they've been that way for long before their rebellion, and that's no reason to kill every person with a Kekkei Genkai! The Kaguya Revolt would have been far bloodier if the other Kekkei Genkai wielders hadn't stepped in to contain the Kaguyas, and I rewarded them by killing them all! Why did I do that?_

Unbidden, Yagura's mind shot back to his earlier conversation with Mei. _She said I was under a genjutsu – but how could that be? With the Three Tailed Turtle I'm immune to genjutsu; the Turtle can disrupt my chakra network the instant a genjutsu starts to have any effect on me! There's no way a genjutsu could ever…_ The truth struck Yagura like a sledgehammer.

_Of course. Genjutsu never work on me, so I ignored any evidence that I might be under one. All the warning signs were there; more than one of my advisors and close friends told me I was acting unusually, but everyone assumed it was the after-effects of the Kaguya rebellion or me going mad with power, because everyone knows I'm immune to genjutsu. Even when Mei told me I was under a genjutsu, I didn't even bother to check or do a perfunctory attempt to dispel any genjutsu that might be affecting me, because I was so certain I could never be affected by any genjutsu._

_It was arrogance. I was so absolutely certain I was immune to genjutsu that when one worked on me I was completely unprepared to deal with it. I can't think of any way a person could slip a genjutsu past the Three Tailed Turtle unless – unless they were able to control Tailed Beasts. If someone put a genjutsu on the Turtle and me at the same time … but who could have done that? The only other living person in the world who can control Tailed Beasts is Killer Bee, and he's never shown any indications of being that talented with genjutsu. Besides, there's no way Killer Bee could slip away from Kumo and all the way down to Kirigakure and into the Mizukage's office without somebody noticing; a jinchuriki of his power is far too prominent and feared of a figure to be able to simply disappear for that long without many people noticing. So … who could have done it? I suppose it doesn't matter; in the end, if not for my arrogance and stupidity no genjutsu would have worked, no matter how skilled the caster._

_I swore an oath to protect the people of Kirigakure, and I failed_. Yagura felt the Turtle's chakra pressing in on his body, flowing into his injureis and slowly restoring his wounded arm to a healthy, functional state; with a simple effort of will the Mizukage cut the flow of that chakra. _I failed. I killed my people; their blood is on my hands. _A smile made its way onto the Mizukage's face, and a moment later Yagura charged Naruto with as much speed as his battered but chakra-enhanced body could mange. The boy had no time to react, and Yagura's advance was right on target.

The kunai in Naruto's hand plunged into Yagura's chest; the tempered steel blade slid easily between the Mizukage's ribs and into his heart. Yagura shuddered and reflexively gripped Naruto's shoulders, slumping against the boy and gasping out his final words. "Thank you, Naruto Uzumaki." The man's knees gave out, and Naruto, connected to Yagura by the kunai in his ribs, dropped with him. "Become … a great … Hokage."

Then Yagura, Hero the Kaguya Rebellion and Fourth Mizukage of Kirigakure, died.

* * *

Yagura's death shattered the morale of his army; most of them fled the field entirely, and stragglers would drift back into Kirigakure for months after the battle. Others, like a half-crippled Chunin by the name of Saki Kato, had never been terribly loyal to Yagura in the first place, and almost immediately defected to the rebellion. There were a small number of holdouts who remained loyal to Yagura's twisted ideals despite the Mizukage's death, but they were a small fraction of the Mizukage's original force. Most of them fought to the death, but a few of the loyalists fled, swearing to carry on Yagura's cause; Kiri's hunter-ninjas would spend several years tracking down the last of the last of Yagura's remianing followers, most of whom had played a pivotal role in the Kekkei Genkai massacres and Yagura's other atrocities.

The rebel army, now almost doubled in size from defections, arrived outside the gates of Kirigakure the next day. By that time word of Yagura's death had already reached the city, and all it took was a promise from Mei that her army would not loot and pillage the village or murder its citizens to persuade the defenders to open the gates and stand down. Within 24 hours of Yagura's death Mei had taken up residence in the Mizukage's tower; while she had not officially become the Fifth Mizukage yet, there was absolutely no doubt in anybody's mind that she would take the post, especially since only a few people knew she was not the person who struck the killing blow against Yagura. Mei needed credit for killing Yagura to solidify her position at the top of the new hierarchy, and if word ever got out that Naruto struck the killing blow, even though he had merely finished off a half-crippled Yagura who was probably near death anyway, it would bring all sorts of unwelcome attention down on the young genin's head.

Before Mei could even begin to get settled into her new office Naruto Uzumaki sought her out. "Terumi-san, there's something I wanna talk to you about." The boy said, his demeanor unusually solemn. The Mizukage's office was currently a barren room stripped of almost all its contents save a few chairs and a desk; Yagura's personal effects had gone into storage shortly after the rebels arrived in Kirigakure, and Mei was far too busy trying to re-establish order in the wake of Yagura's death and the rebellion's victory to worry about something as unimportant as a bit of interior decorating.

"Of course, Naruto-kun." Mei favored the boy with a fond smile. "I am always willing to speak with one of Kiri's greatest heroes. Have you re-considered my offer? Kiri could use a ninja of your skill, and I think the rank of special jonin far more accurately reflects your actual abilities than genin." Mei had not expected the boy to remain in Kiri once Yagura's reign ended, but after the prominent role he had played in the rebellion, even if he was mostly just a propaganda figurehead, she had to make a token effort to steal him from Konoha.

"Nah, Konoha's my home. Thanks though." Naruto declined the generous offer once more. "Anyway, what I really wanted to talk to you about was Yagura." The boy hesitated for a moment, and then declared. "I think there was something weird going on with him, like he was being controlled or something."

"Really?" Mei's smile grew slightly wider, something that Naruto had begun to suspect meant she was actually worried or angry rather than happy. T_he less happy she is, the bigger her smile gets – man, I really don't understand girls._ "And what makes you think Yagura was not in control of his own actions?"

"Well, when I killed him he kind of – um – thanked me." Naruto answered. "And - and Kakashi-san said that there his sharingan saw some weird stuff going on with his chakra flow, though he figured it was just from Yagura being a jinchuriki. Plus, lots of people said he used to be a really nice Mizukage back before he went crazy one day and starting killing lots of people. Anway, I was trying to think why he would do something weird like say thanks to me for sticking a kunai in him, and between that and the fact that his chakra was acting a little off and how he started acting weird one day I figured that maybe the reason for every was that he was, like, under a genjutsu or something."

"I see." Mei remained silent for a long moment before making he decision. "You are quite correct; Yagura was being controlled by an unidentified outside force. Ao confirmed it several years ago by getting a good look at him with that special eye of his."

"You knew all along?" Naruto asked. "Well, well why didn't you say anything? Why didn't you ever try to break him out of the genjutsu?"

"We did." Mei said simply. "The jutsu effecting Yagura was extremely powerful and quite well-made; all our efforts to free him failed, and the agents who tried inevitably died in the attempt. Like most shinobi, Yagura did not react positively to any ninja attempting to influence the workings of his chakra network without his permission. We tried for years to free Yagura, but we never succeeded and the entire time more and more innocent people were dying; I did not want to kill Yagura, but it was either kill him or let him continue to wreak havoc upon Kiri and kill hundreds of innocents every year."

"Yeah, I guess I've gotta agree with you there." Naruto admitted. "It sucks, but killing one innocent guy's better than letting a bunch of them die, and – and I guess since he thanked me when he got free Yagura figures we did the right thing too."

"I hope so, and I am glad to know that he at least died as himself in the end." Mei agreed. "As for why the rebellion never made Yagura's condition common knowledge…"

"Nobody would've believed you anyway." Naruto finished the woman's sentence, a thoughtful expression on his face "I mean, you guys are the rebels; of course you'd say all kinds of stuff to make Yagura look bad." The young man frowned for a moment, then brightened and added. "But now that you're in charge you can tell everybody the truth, right? I mean, people will probably be really happy to find out he wasn't some sort of bastard, he was just being controlled, right?"

"No, I am afraid the truth about Yagura's condition will have to remain a secret for now." Mei told the boy. Noting his obvious displeasure at the news, she explained "Kiri just finished a long and painful civil war; we need to focus on healing our wounds and rebuilding Kiri as a single, unified power; that's why all but the very worst of Yagura's loyalists got pardoned for their actions under his regime, and why I am offering amnesty to most of the ninja who went during his reign. If the people of Kiri knew the truth about Yagura it would deepen the very divisions I am trying to heal, and it would give his remaining loyalists an excuse to oppose me. Also, if word got out to the other nations that Yagura was being controlled it would make Kiri seem weak, especially since we have no idea who was controlling him, and after a civil war the last thing Kiri needs is to give any foreign powers more reasons to think our nation is vulnerable to attack. Perhaps, once things have settled down a few years from now I can redeem his reputation, but for now the truth will have to remain hidden."

"Politics again." Naruto grumbled.

"Something every Kage has to deal with." Mei informed the boy with a rueful grin. "The safety and security Kiri is far more important than a single man's reputation; if Yagura was still alive I am sure he would agree that this is the right decision."

"Yeah, I guess." Naruto slumped down in his chair and glared down at the floor. "Still sucks though. I mean, once all the people find out what Yagura did they're gonna think jinchuriki like me and Yagura are just a bunch of crazy monsters who go around killing people for the fun of it, and we're gonna be even more hated and isolated than we were before. What's really weird is, most of the things Yagura was forced to do don't really make any sense; it's almost like whoever was controlling him just wanted to make people hate and fear jinchuriki by making him look like an out-of-control maniac."

"Perhaps, but if that was their plan it has failed." Mei assured the boy. "Once the situation in Kiri is more stable Yagura's reputation can be rehabilitated, and until then people might remember Yagura's crimes, but they will also remember the brave young jinchuriki that helped to free our people." Mei gave Naruto a brilliant smile, and then added thoughtfully. "I think that, perhaps, having experienced both you and Yagura will give the people of Kiri a better perspective on jinchuriki; jinchuriki are not inherently noble, nor are they all monsters. Much like any other group of people, jinchuriki can have wildly different personalities."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Naruto agreed thoughtfully. "I'm not really all that similar to Yagura, and I didn't have much in common with Nii Yugito when I ran into her either. Really, aside from being jinchuriki the three of us are pretty much completely different people who don't have anything in common with each other. Y'know, I had been thinking of trying to meet up with some of the other jinchuriki since I figured we'd have a lot of stuff in common, but – well, we don't really, so I guess there's no point in bugging them." The boy gave a careless shrug, and then suddenly bolted up in startled realization. "Crap! I told Gai-sensei I was only gonna say a quick goodbye before we went back to Konoha, and now I've been talking with you for way too long! Sorry, gotta run!"

"Wait, Naruto." The new Mizukage called out. "Before you leave there's one last thing I need to give you." The woman beckoned the boy closer.

"Eh? What's that?" Naruto asked curiously. _Maybe she found some of Yagura's secret jutsus for dealing with Tailed Beasts; that one he smacked me with was pretty nasty. Nah, they haven't had time to go through all his stuff yet, so it's probably not that. Hey, maybe it's like, a year of free ramen or something! That'd be awesome! Whatever it is, it's probably pretty neat! _The boy trotted back across the room to Mei's side, eagerly awaiting his prize.

Much to the boy's shock, instead of presenting him with some sort of gift Mei leaned over kissed him on the cheek. "On behalf of the people of Kirigakure and all of Water Country, thank you, Naruto-kun. Know that whatever happens, you will always have friends here."

As soon as the boy realized what Mei had just done he began blushing furiously, and self-consciously ducked his head down muttering. "It was no big deal, Mei-san." With a nervous chuckle, the boy added. "Um, anyway, I gotta go now, so – uh – well, bye and stuff." The overwhelmed boy practically fled the room.

Mei smiled at Naruto's departing form, delighted by the effects a simple kiss on the cheek had upon the boy. A few moments later Ao entered the room, a small folder full of papers in his hands and a rare smile on his grizzled face. "You oughta take it easy on that the; he's probably gonna end up having a huge crush on you after that." With a shrug, the man continued. "Then again, it might be useful if Konoha's jinchuriki likes you; we might be friends with them now, but who knows what might happen twenty years from now. That kid's gonna be a powerhouse when he grows up; having be a little loyal to Kiri and the Mizukage on top of his hometown might be useful to us."

"Of course." Mei agreed with her subordinate's reasoning, before adopting a mischievous smile. "Besides, I like Naruto-kun; he is a delightful child."

"Yeah, he's a pretty good kid; looks a little too soft and nice on the surface, but I wouldn't want to deal with him when he's really pissed off." Ao opened up his file and quickly sorted through the set of papers. "Most of this is just stupid administrative crap I'll stick some stupid chunin with, but there are a couple things you probably need to deal with. First off, the genin academy needs a new name; I'm pretty sure you don't want it named for Naoko Oshiro any more."

"You are quite correct." Mei declared coolly. "Yagura built that poisonous bitch up into some sort of martyr after I killed her, and I hardly want her name to be remembered in anything like a positive light." The smile on the new Mizukage's face as the harsh words slipped out of her mouth was enough to disturb the normally unflappable Ao. A moment later Mei was back to her normal self, idly drumming her fingers on the desk as she pondered the next matter of business. "What to re-name it then? I certainly won't name it after myself; that's just gauche." Mei's eyes drifted out the window, and she saw a familiar orange jumpsuit rapidly making its way towards Kirigakure's gates. "How about the Naruto Uzumaki Genin Academy?" Mei suggested.

Ao considered the proposal for a moment, and nodded in agreement. "Makes sense; name the school that trains our genin after the genin that helped liberate our village; seems quite appropriate." Ao made a quick note of the Academy's new name, and then rifled through his papers for the other item, finally producing another sheet of paper. "Here we are: apparently there's some sort of clan problem you need to deal with."

_Did he just say I have a man problem to deal with?_

"Something about an arranged marriage." Ao added, unaware of his impending doom.

_Arranged marriage? Man problem? What the hell is he trying to pull? I might be a little old to still be single, but that's because I was busy leading the rebellion! _"Ao." Mei said in a deceptively calm voice. "Shut up or I'll kill you."

_What did I do?_ Ao wondered, mystified by the woman's sudden mood swing.

* * *

"Hey Old Man, how ya been?" Naruto greeted the Hokage; Gai had already finished delivering the team's official report on their mission to Kiri, and now it was just the young boy and old man alone in his office. The boy had been a very polite and proper genin while his sensei and two other jonin were present, but now that it was just him and the Old Man alone the boy felt that there was no reason to restrain himself.

"Quite well, Naruto." Hiruzen answered, humoring the boy.

"Hey, there's something I wanna talk to you about." Naruto declared. "I've been thinking a lot lately, and I decided – well, I think you oughta get rid of that law that says people can't talk about how I'm a jinchuriki."

"Are you sure about that, Naruto?" The Hokage frowned down at the young genin. "That law was put into place to prevent any trouble with your peers; I know it was less successful than I hoped, but…"

"I don't care." Naruto cut the Hokage off. "I know it might mean a lot of them won't like me, or maybe they'll be scared of me at first, but they're gonna find out eventually anyway, and the sooner they do the more time they'll have to get used to it. Besides, I've been thinking, and I bet part of the reason people are so scared of jinchuriki is that they don't know much about them except for scary rumors and stuff; I mean, I didn't even know much about them until I ran into Yugito and Yagura. So, well, I think that even if it means I won't make any more friends, then it's better for people to know the truth. Besides, TenTen-chan and Bushy Brows were still my friends after they found out, so I maybe other people will be alright with it too."

The Hokage considered Naruto's request, and slowly nodded in agreement. "It is your secret, so if you are certain this is the course you wish to take then I will do what I can to aid you." When Naruto confirmed his wish to abolish the law protecting the secret of his status as a jinchuriki, Hiruzen gave a sharp nod. "Very well then; the next group genin is graduating in a week or so, I can have Iruka tell them as part of their final lessons. I will do what I can to ensure your fellow shinobi have the situation explained to them by knowledgeable people; some of the villagers have very inaccurate notions about what a jinchuriki really is."

"Thanks, Old Man," Naruto said solemnly, before jokingly adding. "Y'know, for a dried-up old fossil you're not half-bad sometimes."

"Thank you, Naruto." The Hokage answered dryly. With a slight smirk, Hiruzen added. "That reminds me, there was one other matter I wanted to discuss with you. Gai mentioned that he ordered you to stay out of the fight with Yagura, and yet you participated in it anyway." The Hokage fixed Naruto with a stern glare. "I seem to recall you specifically promised to obey all of Gai's instructions during this mission..."

Naruto gave a nervous chuckle and began rubbing the back of his head. "Well, yeah, but that wasn't my fault; I mean, when I went after Yagura the Fox was pretty much in control of my actions and – well, that means that you can't really blame me for…" Naruto trailed off, and gave a defeated sigh. "I'm gonna be cleaning up other people's crap in the sewers with Bushy Brows and TenTen-chan no matter what I say, right?"

"As far as most of the village is concerned, your recent activities in Water Country were officially unsanctioned." Hiruzen answered. "Of course, the concessions we gained from Kiri are impossible to hide, and I am quite certain most of the shinobi strongly suspect you were operating with my approval, but in order to maintain the pretense that Konoha is not meddling in the internal affairs of another village certain measures will have to be taken." The Hokage smiled and added. "The fact that you actually did something deserving of punishment is simply a happy coincidence."

"Aw, man, more of this political crap." Naruto grumbled, folding his arms across his chest and pouting. "If everyone knows what I did and that you're cool with it then why do we have to pretend that I was running off on my own without your permission?"

"There is a substantial difference between letting people suspect that you were operating with my approval and openly admitting it." The Hokage pointed out.

"So, it's like that time when I pranked Mizuki-sensei, and most people figured I did it, but since nobody could prove anything they couldn't actually punish me?" Naruto asked.

"I suppose that is a reasonably accurate comparison." The Hokage agreed. "The political sphere is built upon a combination of subtlety and willful ignorance; the situation is not dissimilar to what you faced after Yugito's attempt to kidnap you; so long as a plausible lie is presented, other nations will pretend to believe it so long as the truth is sufficiently inconvenient."

"So that means I gotta clean out the sewers." Naruto grumbled. "I kinda understand why things have gotta work out that way, but it still sucks."

"Life is quite often unfair, Naruto. However, you will not be cleaning Konoha's sewers with your teammates; I have something different in mind for you. I am afraid you will find it substantially worse than simply cleaning the sewers." _Knowing Naruto, half the toilets in Konoha would back up and explode if we let him loose in the sewers anyway_. Before the Hokage could elaborate on Naruto's new assignment there was a quick knock on his door, and then a chunin entered and set a massive pile of paperwork down on Hiruzen's desk.

_Man, I know I wanna be the Hokage one day, but having to do all that paperwork's gonna suck. Hehe … stinks to be the Old Man right now_. Before Naruto could comment upon this fact, Hiruzen gave him an entirely too cheerful smile and declared. "That was well timed; you can start on your new duties right away, Naruto. Fill out these forms; it should not take you more than two or three hours."

"Do what?" Naruto asked as his mind struggled to process this unexpected turn of events. "Are … you saying my punishment duty is to be stuck in your office doing a bunch of paperwork and other stupid, boring crap like that when I could be outside training or hanging out with my friends?"

"Yes." Hiruzen answered. "Instead of going on active-duty missions you will be serving as my administrative assistant; at half pay of course, as we agreed before your mission to Kiri." _Naruto's involvement with the rebellion was a little more public than I would have liked; keeping him out of the field for a few months should help restore him to relative anonymity._

"Aw, you can really be mean sometimes, Old Man." Naruto whined.

* * *

A/N: Sorry for taking so long to get this chapter done; life has been very busy lately and I had a mild case of writer's block with this chapter.

So, Naruto doesn't get a bridge named after him, but getting Kiri's genin Academy is a pretty good consolation prize. Besides, the Wave Arc is now thoroughly pre-empted since Gato's dead, Zabuza is back in Kirigakure, and Wave Country is now in Konoha's sphere of influence (and as an added bonus, Inari never becomes an Emo brat). Next chapter will feature reactions to Naruto's big reveal, and the introduction/re-introduction of the rest of the Konoha genin in Naruto's age range. Chunin Exams are coming up; there will be a passing resemblance to the original canon storyline.


	12. Reactions

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Naruto

* * *

Tenten and Lee had expected there to be trouble when Naruto went public about the fact that he was a jinchuriki; Naruto had not been popular when their peers didn't have any clear reason beyond their parent's disapproval to hate him, and they expected things to get worse once the truth was out. The Hokage did what he could to lessen the negative impact of the news; the village's Academy teachers and jonin-sensei received long, detailed instructions telling them exactly how to inform their students of Naruto's condition, and even shinobi who actively disliked the boy were not about to risk the harsh punishment for openly disobeying the Hokage's orders. Still, there were ways to follow the letter of the Hokage's orders while violating their spirit, and ninja were naturally skilled in exploiting such loopholes.

Among the Academy students, Naruto's reputation did not suffer nearly as much damage as it did elsewhere; the Hokage could act with total impunity within the Academy, and Hiruzen had set the instructors to providing an all-day lesson on jinchuriki that debunked several widespread but entirely false beliefs about demon hosts. After Mizuki found himself stripped of his post at the Academy and reassigned to punishment duty for objecting to the lesson plan Hiruzen imposed upon the teachers, the remaining instructors made every effort to fulfill the Hokage's wishes. However much the Academy teachers disliked Naruto, keeping their jobs was more important than their grudge against the boy. Some, like Iruka Umino, had not even needed the threat of punishment to do what they could to support the boy.

Contrary to the Hokage's control over the Academy, jonin-sensei were traditionally allowed to rule over their genin with a high degree of autonomy. While Hiruzen would have been well within his rights to interfere in the internal workings of any ninja team, such a blatant display of authority would provoke a great deal of resentmen within the ranks, and would probably make things worse for Naruto than if the Hokage did nothing at all. Fortunately, Kurenai would ensure that her new team would treat Naruto well due to the jonin's experience with the young jinchuriki in Kiri, and Asuma Sarutobi, son of the Hokage, was also taking charge of a new genin team and agreed with his father's opinion of Naruto. If Kakashi's new team actually managed to pass his infamously difficult qualifying exam, something that seemed more likely than usual since Sasuke Uchiha would be on the team, then that would give Naruto at least three genin teams whose instructors were friendly to him, and would encourage thier students to hold the boy in high regard.

Naruto's current assignment as the Hokage's assistant insulated him from the worst of the gossip in the village, and Hiruzen made it very clear that he would not tolerate anyone being openly disrespectful of Naruto or attempting to attacks him verbally or physically. Rather than encouraging new trouble, news that Naruto was a jinchuriki had frightened many of Naruto's peers; several of Naruto's former classmates feared that the demon host might hunt them down to avenge the mockery he endured at the Academy.

Unfortunately, fear of Naruto's retaliation and the Hokage's protection simply caused people who wanted to lash out at the boy to find someone else to target, and far too many people knew that Tenten and Lee were Naruto's Uzumaki's closest friends. Lee gave few indications that he even noticed the newfound disdain some of his peers held him in. Much like Naruto, Lee had faced exclusion and mockery for his poor performance at the Academy, and the fact that Lee had gone on to become as eccentric as Gai hardly improved his popularity. Much like Naruto, Lee had no real friends outside of Team Gai, so he hardly noticed the fact that some of his peers glaring at him for being friends with Naruto.

Tenten, on the other hand, had generally gotten along with her fellow shinobi. Fortunately, most of the genin who took the news that Naruto was a jinchuriki poorly had already been hostile to the boy to begin with, and thus, so far as Tenten was concerned, their opinions were not worthy of consideration. In response to the occasional expressions of hostility, the girl grew even more defensive of her friend than usual, and Lee was very relieved when Gai showed up in time to stop a brawl from breaking out when Tenten overheard another genin team talking about Naruto. While Lee would not hesitate to defend Naruto's reputation against insults and threats, ever since the news that he was a jinchuriki came out Tenten had become prickly when anybody mentioned his name, and often perceived an attempt to insult her friend where none had been intended.

While there was a degree of tension with their fellow shinobi, the worst trouble for Naruto's teammates came from the civilian populace of Konoha. While the shinobi who disliked Naruto mostly limited themselves to giving Naruto and his teammates the cold shoulder and disapproving glares, the civilians were neither disciplined enough to hide their dislike nor as conditioned to obeying the Hokage's orders, even when they disagreed with those orders. As Naruto's best and most well known friends, Tenten and Lee found themselves subjected to much of the treatment he had suffered at the hands of the villagers.

While there was nothing overtly provable, the civilians had no shortage of ways to make the lives of the two genin slightly less pleasant; cleaning the sewers as part of their punishment duty was nasty enough when half the village was not trying to come up with creative ways to make their job even worse, and Tenten could not believe just how much more disgusting the sewers had gotten in the last week. The side effects of sewer duty also gave the villagers a plausible excuse to engage in overt action against the two; attempting to go almost anywhere in public would produce loud complaints that both of them stank, and they were often denied service at restaurants or shops on that account. While a long day of sewer duty did leave behind a uniquely horrifying odor, both genin bathed thoroughly at the end of every work day, and it was obvious to both that claims of a foul odor following them around were simply an excuse to lash out at Naruto's teammates.

While coldness from their peers and disdain from the villagers was to be expected, the rare positive reactions to the news caught the two off guard. One day when Tenten ran into Iruka the Academy instructor spoke approvingly of her continued friendship with Naruto, saying that he was quite proud that she stuck by her friend after learning that Naruto was a jinchuriki. Tenten and Lee were also pleasantly surprised when the owner of Konoha's yakiniku restaurant provided them with a free meal; the man explained his unusual generosity by mentioning that he had family in Water Country. One day, while Tenten and Lee were enjoying a meal at the yakiniku restaurant before subjecting themselves to yet another day of unpleasant sewer duty, two young Academy-age girls sat at a nearby table, and Tenten realized that not all of the positive reactions to Naruto's condition were good.

"Poor Naruto-kun, he's an orphan and he's got that nasty demon sealed inside him. Sure, he acts all happy, but you can tell that deep down he's in so much; he's such a sensitive soul." The first girl, who had an impressive mane of chestnut-brown hair, gushed to her companion. "He's an orphan, and so many people in the village are so cruel to him because he's got the Nine Tailed Fox sealed inside of him; it's not far. He's just waiting for the right girl to help heal his wounds and show him after all the pain there's someone willing to love him and help put him back together again…" The girl sighed wistfully and gazed out the window.

"No, no, no, you've got it all wrong." The girl's companion, who had short blue-black hair insisted. "Naruto-kun's not like that at all. He's a free-spirited rebel who only follows his own rules and doesn't care at all about what society thinks of him, that's why he used to be such a prankster. Plus, having the Nine Tailed Fox sealed inside of him makes him so dangerous; it could break out of him at any moment. And he's so aloof; sure, he seems like a nice, open guy, but when you think about you realize you don't really know anything about him. My parents hate him…" The other girl's smile took on a distinctly mischievous light, and Tenten suspected that, so far as the girl was concerned, the disapproval of her parents was one of Naruto's more attractive qualities.

"Lee, am I going completely insane, or are they – fangirling? Over Naruto?" Tenten stared at the two in dull shock.

"It would appear that they are, Tenten-san." Lee informed his companion. "I suppose everyone is reacting to the news about Naruto-kun's condition differently, though I will admit I expected more hate and fear and less of…" Lee trailed off, and waved a hand in the general direction of the two girls, "that."

"Lee, I don't think you understand what's going on here." Tenten informed her companion, an expression of shocked disbelief on her face. "Naruto Uzumaki has fangirls! He used to be the worst student in our class; even you had better grades than him. And – and now he has fangirls! Two of them! And they're arguing over whether he's a broken bird who needs to be nursed back to health or a wild and dangerous free-spirited rebel! This is insane!"

"I agree." Lee informed his teammate earnestly. "While his youthfulness does drive him to seek his own solutions over the wisdom of others, Naruto is far too considerate of others and cares too much about his friends and comrades to be a true free spirit. On the other hand, while there has been unpleasantness in his life, Naruto has long since dealt with the neglect and disdain less enlightened individuals treat him with and, as I am sure you are aware Tenten-san, he neither needs nor wants to be nurtured." With a smile, Lee concluded. "Naruto is just a classic nice guy."

"Lee, you're missing the point." Tenten groaned, massaging her forehead with a single hand. "It's not about what type of guy Naruto is, it's the fact that he's got fangirls in the first place. It's just – it's just not natural."

"Why not?" Lee asked in genuine confusion. "Naruto is a nice guy and a brilliant ninja; it is only natural that Konoha's female population would notice that sooner or later."

"But – but this is Naruto we're talking about." Tenten insisted, trying to make her companion understand. "I mean, I can understand why people like Neji Hyuuga and Sasuke Uchiha get hordes of girls fantasizing about them; they're good-looking top-ranked ninja, and they're both from major clans, and they have the aloof mytseirous guy thing working for them. Naruto doesn't have some high-ranked family backing him up, he's definitely not some sort of cool elite type, he's more cute than good-looking, and before I stepped in to help him out he used to be the worst student in the class!" The volume of Tenten's voice gradually rose of the course of her statement, and by the time she was reminding Lee of Naruto's status as the former dead last she was almost shouting.

Naturally, any sort of negative comment about the object of their admiration attracted the attention of Naruto's budding fan club. "Hey! Naruto-kun only got bad grades at the Academy because all the teachers were jerks who were biased against him!"

"No, Naruto-kun got bad grades because he was far too cool to care about what a bunch of stupid instructors at a stupid school thought about him; he probably went out and practiced in secret where nobody else he could see him after class." The girl's companion insisted, alternating between glaring at Tenten and smirking at her friend.

"Do either of you even know Naruto?" Tenten demanded. "Because it sounds like you're just taking a bunch of traits that have nothing to do with him but match up with what you idea of the perfect boyfriend is, and then you're projecting them onto Naruto."

"Oh yeah?" The girl who seemed enamored with the concept of Naruto as a free-spirited rebel shot back. "And what would you know about Naruto-kun anyway?"

"Tenten-san and I are Naruto-kun's teammates." Lee supplied helpfully.

"Well, if she's on his team then why would she be saying he's not a very good ninja?" The other fangirl insisted. "It doesn't make any sense unless – oh, I think I see what's going on here." The girl shot Tenten a nasty smirk, and declared. "Sorry, but if you've been on his team for a whole year and he still hasn't noticed you then I think it's time you stepped aside and let someone else have a chance. Maybe if you didn't look like you've got a pair of meatballs stuck on top of your head you'd have gotten his attention by now; everyone knows that Naruto-kun likes girls with long, womanly hair." The girl ran a hand through her impressively long mane of hair to emphasize her point.

"No, that's Sasuke." The girl's short-haired companion insisted. "Naruto-kun likes girls with short hair, because it proves that they're practical and serious kunoichi. Of course, you were chasing after Sasuke until you found out about Naruto-kun, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you've crushed on so many different boys that you can't even keep them straight." The girl eyed her companion and declared contemptuously "You're such a slut sometimes."

"Bitch!" The long-haired fangirl screeched before slapping her rival for Naruto's affections.

"Whore!" The short-hared girl struck right back, and the two were soon engaged in a fight that seemed to involve a great deal of hair pulling and clawing, and none of the ninja skills one would expect from a pair of recent Academy graduates.

"Lee, if I ever end up like that, please do me a favor and kill me." Tenten requested, watching the first two members of Naruto's fan club in dull horror.

* * *

"I always thought there was something a bit unusual about Uzumaki's chakra system." Neji Hyuuga murmured to himself. "I suppose having the Nine Tailed Fox sealed inside of him would explain that."

"And that must be how he was able to beat Masaru!" Maeko crowed, a nasty smile on her face. The vicious scar that ran down her jawline from her left ear to her chin, the legacy of an encounter with a rogue ninja three months ago, made the expression particularly unpleasant. While she had filled out in the year since graduation, Maeko had not been particularly attractive before her face had been marred, and her short blue hair did nothing to conceal the scar. "He must have been using some sort of demon power or something. I knew he was cheating!"

"That was last year, Maeko, just let it go already." Masaru told the girl, weary resignation in his voice. The large boy ran a hand through his short brown hair and sighed. "I was fine with losing the match five seconds after it was over; I really don't understand get why you want to make such a big deal over it."

"Your continuing obsession with the outcome of that match is wearying." Neji agreed. _Maeko really does prove that people can't change their fundamental natures; even after everything she's been through she's still the same whiny, annoying, loser with a huge chip on her shoulder that she was in the Academy._

"But it's the only explanation that makes sense, Masaru." Maeko insisted stridently. "How else could he have gone from being the dead last to beating one of the best students in the class in a single month? If he's got the Nine Tailed Fox sealed inside of him then he's probably got all kinds of demon powers and stuff, right?"

"I did not notice Naruto using any sort of demonic abilities, just standard Academy jutsu and some creative sneakiness." Masaru declared with a shrug. "If he was using some sort of unnatural powers I'm pretty sure somebody would have noticed that, and even if he did his victory was still legitimate; ninja are supposed to use all of their abilities in sparring matches. Nobody cares about making things fair in a real fight."

"Well, if he wasn't cheating then how did he beat you, Masaru?" Maeko scowled and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Naruto won his match with Masaru because Naruto is a genius." Neji responded coolly.

"What?" Maeko shouted, taken off guard by Neji's sudden declaration. "Naruto Uzumaki, a genius? Have you gone nuts, Neji?"

"Think about it." Neji chastised his teammate. "Most of the instructors at the Academy didn't do a proper job of teaching Naruto because the resented him for being the host of the Nine Tailed Fox. However, as soon as Tenten provides him with a bit of basic tutoring he shoots up through the ranks in a matter of weeks. If class rankings were based on an objective evaluation of pure combat skills at the end of the year rather than a weighted average of academic and practical performance over the course of the entire year Naruto would have been in the top five. That was with one month of tutoring from a fellow student as his only real education. Even when the biased instructors of the Academy did everything in their power to hamper Naruto's education, his natural genius ultimately won out; it was simply destiny."

"Y'know, maybe Neji's got a point." Masaru declared speculatively. "I don't know if I'd call Naruto a genius, but his skills did grow at a remarkable rate after Tenten started helping him. Considering how much Naruto's abilities improved after a month of tutoring from Tenten he must have had a lot of natural potential." Masaru grimaced and gave a humorless chuckle. "So much for my hopes of winning a re-match; I can only imagine how good he'll have gotten with a year's worth of training from a jonin-sensei; it's no wonder he seems to be making himself into a living legend outside of Konoha."

"Don't tell me you believe all those stupid rumors about him going off to Water Country and helping to overthrow the Mizukage." Maeko declared disdainfully. "I mean, I know Kiri's a shithole of a country, and it figures Uzumaki would get mixed up with them, but he's still just a genin, and his team hasn't even gone to the chunin exams like we did last month. There's no way he could have done any of the stuff people are talking about, even in a crap country with crap ninja's like Kiri."

"If Naruto had gone to the chunin exams he wouldn't have gotten his team thrown out in the first round by calling the Kazekage a 'stupid fucking asshole.'" Masaru grumbled.

"Well, the Kazekage is a stupid fucking asshole." Maeko said defensively. "What kind of moronic jerk would come up with such an asinine idea for the first part of the exam?"

"Granted, you had valid concerns about the Kazekage's nature, and the task set for the first round did seem a bit irregular, but did it ever occur to you that blatantly and loudly insulting the Kazekage when one of the Suna ninjas proctoring the exams is standing just a couple meters away might not have been prudent?" Masaru asked the girl, a slight hint of bitterness in his voice. It had taken the team three days to travel to Sunagakure for the Chunin Exam, and enduring the long journey only to end up being disqualified before the exams even got properly started because of his teammate's foul mouth non-existent diplomatic skills was enough to frustrate the normally placid Masaru, even a month after the fact.

"What, was I just supposed to ignore the fact that the test was so blatantly biased in favor of Suna?" Maeko shot back. "Really, how is a desert survival test fair? They live in the middle of a freaking desert, but nobody else has any experience dealing with that sort of test! Plus, all the tests were set up so genjutsu types wouldn't have a chance against of passing; he's probably one of those people who thinks that genjutsu users like me are a bunch of ninja who can't handle themselves in a real fight!"

"I really don't understand why you use genjutsu so much in the first place." Masaru told the girl. "You're not very good with it, and sensei said you don't really have the chakra control of the intelligence to ever become a great genjutsu user. You really ought to focus on ninjutsu instead; our sensei has been telling you to do that ever since he did that test with the chakra paper..."

"I don't want to use ninjutsu!" Maeko snarled, an ugly expression making its way onto her face. "I like using genjutsu; I know you're not one of those people who thinks that genjutsu users are a bunch of weaklings and losers, but sensei is. He must be, as much as he tells me to quit focusing on it and switch to ninjutsu."

_Maeko is a weakling and a loser, so if someone were to judge all genjutsu users by taking her as an example…_ "There's no point in arguing about what happened in Sunagakure again." Neji told his teammates. "We've got five months until the next Chunin Exam, and this time it will be in Konoha, so at least we won't waste a week traveling back and forth to the exam site if anything goes wrong. Besides, this exam looks like it should be much more interesting anyway; most of the genin except for the Suna ones looked weak." _Come to think of it, the fact that none of the other villages sent many good candidates supports Maeko's belief that Suna has designed their exams to ensure that Suna's ninjas do better than the competition. Then again, from what I've heard about previous chunin exams in Konoha, a forest survival test is a fairly common feature of our exam..._

"Plus, maybe Uzumaki's team will be in the exam this time, so Masaru can finally have a rematch with Naruto and set things right." Maeko offered. "Or hey, maybe I'll just kick his ass myself."

"Yes, because fighting a battle against a natural genius who we've just discovered has incredibly natural advantages over other shinobi thanks to being a jinchuriki sounds like a brilliant idea." Masaru said sarcastically. "After all, he beat me with nothing more than a month of basic tutoring and whatever bits of knowledge he got from the Academy's lackluster instruction; now that he's had an entire year of proper teaching from one of the best jonin in Konoha on top of that he definitely doesn't stand a chance against me."

"It's just destiny." Neji informed his teammates. "Masaru is an above-average shinobi, but he still can't hope to stand against a prodigy equipped with the natural advantages that all jinchuriki hold over normal ninjas. Only an equally gifted and talented ninja could hope to stand as an equal opponent to someone on Naruto Uzumaki's level."

"A gifted and talented ninja like you?" Masaru asked, glancing at his teammate curiously.

"Exactly." A tight smile made its way onto Neji's face. "I could match Naruto's genius with my own, while the Byakugan and Gentle Fist give me an advantage equal to that of the enlarged chakra capacity jinchuriki are supposed to have. It will be interesting to match up against someone who just might be my equal." _Not to mention that defeating a jinchuriki would demonstrate that the Branch family has grown strong._

"I still can't believe you think Naruto Uzumaki is some kind of genius." Maeko scoffed. "From the way you go on and on about destiny and fate and how people are all born with a certain degree of skill they can never move beyond I expected you to say Naruto was still a loser and he'd always be a loser. Hell, you tell me that I'm a loser all the time, so why does Uzumaki get special treatment?"

"You really should just stop your pathetic whining." Neji told the girl, a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Naruto Uzumaki is not a loser like you. Just accept your inevitable destiny as a failure, and stop wasting everyone's time by pretending you have the potential to become a skilled kunoichi."

"You are such an asshole Neji." Maeko shot back venomously.

"It is a simple truth." Neji told the girl, meeting her rage with bored disdain. "The only reason you refuse to see it is that your pride stands in your way; rather than accept that you are a failure you continually blame others for your own shortcomings. Even when a mere rogue genin nearly killed with a single attack and left your face permanently scarred, you tried to blame me for your own incompetence. You are a loser, and you will always be a loser; it is your destiny." _Just like it is my destiny to defeat Naruto Uzumaki and force the Main Family to admit that the Branch Family has surpassed them._

* * *

"Aw, c'mon Old Man!" Naruto whined, glaring hatefully at the, to all appearances, horrendously disorganized mountain of paperwork piled on his small desk in the Hokage's office. "I could finish up all this stupid paperwork in five minutes if you'd just let me use my shadow clones to do it." _If I finish up all this stupid paperwork I could get back to training, or maybe go on some real missions. Sure, the Old Man lets me train in the mornings and evenings, but I'd be getting even stronger if I didn't have to spend the entire afternoon in his boring old office._

"No, Naruto." The Hokage told the boy. "Not after what happened last time; you're just lucky you managed to dispel them before there was any damage, or I would have taken the cost of repairs out of your pay, and you can't really afford that with how little I'm paying you right now."

"Hey, that wasn't my fault!" Naruto complained. "How was I supposed to know a couple of them would get bored after just a couple minutes and ... well, you were there, you know what they were gonna do."

"Indeed, I'm just glad you were able to stop them before the Daimyo's wife came in." Hiruzen told the boy, carefully controlling his urge to chuckle at the memory.

"Exactly!" Naruto cried out. "I had it all under control! In the end nothing happened and nobody saw anything, so – so you should let me use my shadow clones again."

"No, I don't think it would be wise to risk a repeat of that incident." Hizuzen told the young man. _One Naruto is too much to handle sometimes; I don't think my office could survive having a couple dozen of them around on a regular basis. Even if the simplicity and high chakra requirements make it perfectly suited to Naruto, sometimes I really regret giving Kakashi permission to teach him the shadow clone jutsu._

"What if I just used a couple clones?" Naruto suggested. "That way I would be able to keep an eye on them, so none of them would get out of line like happened last time."

"Perhaps a compromise then." Hiruzen offered, pulling out several envelopes. "I do have some messages I need delivered; your clones can take care of that while you stay in here doing paperwork."

"But I don't wanna do paperwork any more!" Naruto whined. "I've been stuck in this stupid office all freaking day!"

"Kages are supposed to be patient and disciplined." Hiruzen reminded his young charge.

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto grumbled. _Man, once I'm the next Hokage there's no way in hell I'm gonna do any of this stupid paperwork crap; I'll have a bunch of minions that'll do all the boring stuff for me_. Naruto grimaced when realization struck. _Kinda like what the Old Man's got me doing now. Dammit, I'm a minion._

Before Naruto could think any further on the matter, Asuma Sarutobi entered the Hokage's office, accompanied by a trio of young ninja who looked like they were around Naruto's age. _Heh, looks like they put together a new Ino-Shika-Cho trio after all; I guess that figures with how their parents are such an awesome team and all_. Naruto glared at the cigarette clamped between Asuma's lips, and waved a hand in front of his face to emphasize his displeasure. "Why do all you Sarutobis gotta smoke all the time?" Naruto complained. "The place stinks bad enough with the Old Man's pipe, we don't need you getting in on the act too. I just know any day now Konohamaru's gonna start smoking too, even though he's still a little kid; it's like everyone in your family's gotta have their tobacco fix all the freaking time!" _Konohamaru's a funny kid, but he really oughta give up on trying to take down the Old Man, even if he's all old and stuff, the Old Man's still pretty badass, and Konohamaru's just a brat without any real ninja training. Y'know, since he's still pretty awesome even now that he's old, the Old Man must have been really freaking awesome back when he was young._

"Oh, hello Naruto." Asuma called out to the boy cheerfully. "My father still using you as his paperwork bitch?"

"Administrative assistant." Naruto growled. If the boy was honest with himself he would admit the disrespectful term for his job was rather amusing, but only when it was applied to people other than him. "It's an important job; the Old Man wouldn't be able to keep Konoha running if I didn't keep all this stupid crap straight for him."

"Yes, your organizational skills are obviously superior." Asuma said dryly, his gaze lingering on the chaotic mess of paperwork covering the boy's desk. "How did the Hokage ever manage to rule Konoha for several decades without you?"

"Alright, so maybe the Old Man's not completely helpless without me." Naruto conceded. "But he still does a lot better now that he's got me helping him, 'cause I'm awesome like that." Waving a hand over the mound of chaotic paperwork covering his desk, the boy declared. "The only reason this all looks like a giant mess is because you just don't understand how cool my system for organizing all of this stupid crap is. I can find anything you need in five seconds!"

"Oh really?" Asuma asked, struggling to keep a straight face; getting Naruto wound up was far too simple, and always provided a bit of amusement. "Well, perhaps you can find a mission for my team then?"

"What, you already did their qualifying test?" Naruto asked. "They just assigned graduates into teams this morning, so it must have been a pretty crappy test if they've already finished it." Turning to the newly formed genin team, Naruto smirked at them and declared. "Man, you guys really lucked out; Gai-sensei nearly worked my team to death when he did our qualifying exam."

"Oh, I wouldn't say they have it too easy." Asuma told the boy. "The bell test is nice way to evaluate their abilities, but this time I decided that it might be interesting to try something a little different. Instead of just doing an examination, doesn't it make more sense to test their skills by seeing how they do on an actual mission?" Turning to his father, Asuma said. "I don't want them to think I'll go easy on them, so maybe you should give them an A-ranked mission just to show that I'm serious."

Ino and Choji paled at the suggestion of undertaking such a difficult mission, while Shikamaru sighed and grumbled under his breath about troublesome senseis and pain in the ass missions. "Well," Hiruzen drew out and lit his pipe, prompting more grumbling from Naruto about the tobacco addiction that all members of the Sarutobi family seemed to share, "I am afraid I just assigned the last of the A-ranked missions today, but there are still some D-ranks left." The old man glanced at Naruto and gave a slight smile when he declared. "I imagine Naruto has something suitable in that horrible mess of his."

"It's not a mess, I have a system!" Naruto whined. The boy took a moment to ponder over the matter, and then reached into one of the many mounds of paperwork and pulled out a scroll with a large "D" stamped on it. "Heh, can't believe that freaking cat ran away again, if it wasn't such an evil little furbag I'd almost feel sorry for it." Turning his attention to Asuma's genin team, the boy announced. "This one oughta be good; the Fire Daimyo's cat ran off again, and someone needs to get it back. The Nara clan's shadow grabby jutsu and the Yamanaka mind swap jutsu oughta be pretty handy for catching and subduing the cat; it'll bite and claw the crap outta you if you let it. The Akimichi growing jutsu could be handy for catching the cat too, as long as you don't squish it."

"Sounds like a good enough mission, and I suppose I won't have to worry about them all getting killed like I would with an A-rank mission." Asuma declared, feigning reluctance at accepting the mission. "New genin teams are supposed to lose two out of three members in their first year, but I suppose we can catch up with the statistical averages later."

"Yeah, which one do you think is gonna survive anyway?" Naruto asked, struggling against the urge to laugh at the new genin; by this point Ino and Choji were starting to look a little nervous, though Shikamaru seemed to be ignoring the conversation and looking out the window at some clouds. _Scaring the new guys is fun, and there's a pretty good reason for it; we wanna make sure they're taking things seriously after all. Sure, right now it's just cat chasing and errands, but soon they'll be in fights where people could get killed, and if they think being ninjas is still a game when things start getting serious then some of them might end up getting killed for real._

Asuma walked over to the boy's desk and took the scroll Naruto was holding out for him. Naruto took advantage of the jonin's proximity to whisper, "Hey, Asuma-san, um – how'd your team take the news about me being – y'know, a jinchuriki?" _I hope it went over alright; I don't really need everyone in my age group hating me on top of all the adults._

"Why ask me? They're standing right there." Asuma took the scroll, and then turned to face his new apprentices. "Hey, do any of you have a problem with Naruto being a jinchuriki? If you do, you had best speak up about it now."

Shikamaru's gaze shifted from the window to Naruto, and after a moment's consideration, the boy gave an apathetic shrug, and then returned to his cloud gazing. Choji followed his best friend's lead, shooting Naruto a friendly smile before pulling out a bag of chips and proceeding to shove them into his mouth by the handful. In contrast to the apathetically friendly reactions of her teammates, Ino marched straight up to Naruto's desk and looked him over with a critical eye. Just when Naruto's initial nervousness at the girl's blatant evaluation began to fade, Ino clenched her fist, cocked it back, and shouted. "Naruto you jerk, I'm gonna kick your ass!"

Naruto yelped in fright and quickly crossed his hands over his head, closing his eyes and waiting for the blow to come. When several seconds passed without the girl's fist connecting, Naruto hesitantly opened his eyes to see Ino smirking at him; the girl seemed to be quite pleased with herself. "Yeah, he's still the same old Naruto." The girl announced cheerfully. "If the Nine Tailed Fox was in control of him there's no way he'd be scared just by me yelling at him like that. And people were saying I should be scared he might eat my soul or something because I yelled at him one time back when we were at the Academy."

"Nah, I only eat girls' souls when they're brunettes or redheads." Naruto deadpanned though the smirk on his face gave him away. "Besides, the Hokage complains whenever I eat people's souls in his office, 'cause then there's so much blood and stuff to clean up, and I already had a couple bowls of ramen for lunch today, so I'm not really hungry."

_When did Naruto learn about sarcasm?_ The Hokage wondered

* * *

Ramen was a delicious, wonderful thing, especially when it was not just any ramen, but Ichiraku ramen. For several years, Naruto had been absolutely convinced that ramen was the best thing in the world, until he discovered something even better. As wonderful as hot, fresh Ichiraku ramen could be, no amount of ramen could compete with the joys of friendship. To make things even better, Naruto did not have to choose between ramen and friends; he could have both at the same time, at least until Tenten or Lee started complaining that they were sick of eating ramen and wanted to try something different. Hanging out at Ichiraku's, gobbling down bowl after bowl of ramen, while chatting with Lee and Tenten was quite possibly Naruto's favorite thing in the world. Fortunately, he still had enough money to be able to afford his visits to the ramen bar, especially since he had still had money left over from the extra pay he had gotten for mission where they ran into Yugito.

"Only two more weeks left cleaning the sewers before Lee and I can go back to doing proper missions." Tenten let out a groan that was equal parts anguish and relief. "I never want to have anything else to do with sewers for the rest of my life; they're horrible, filthy, stinky, and just all-around disgusting."

"I have to agree with Tenten-san." Lee declared earnestly. "I am quite eager to leave the Konoha sewers and return to missions that provide the opportunity to stoke our fires of youthful energy." Turning his attention to his other teammate, the young clone of their sensei asked. "Naruto-kun, when will you be able to rejoin us? Ever since your return we have had far too little time to act as a team."

"Aw, man, I don't know." Naruto whined. "The Old Man's been saying that I might be stuck on punishment duty all the way up to the chunin exams." _Although I guess it's not all bad; sure, the work sucks, but I get to see the Old Man do a lot of Hokage-ing. Sometimes he even asks for my opinion, or lets me make some really little decision like picking out which D-rank a genin team's gonna do; that's gonna be good practice for when I kick his sorry old ass and become the next Hokage!_

"Well, I suppose that makes sense." Tenten commented. "We just left the village for a bit because we were worried about you, while you ran off and joined a group of rebels from another village; you even brought back that slashed Kiri headband you were wearing while you were there, like it was some kind of trophy or something." The girl shot Naruto an angry glare, and then sighed. "I'd ask what the hell you were thinking when you did that, but I'm quite sure that you were being your usual, stupidly noble self. I suppose I should just be grateful that you came back, and that the Hokage isn't doing anything worse than sticking you with a desk job for a couple months as punishment."

"Yeah." Naruto agreed with the girl unenthusiastically. "I mean, I knew I was probably gonna get in trouble with the Old Man for hooking up with the rebels, but when I saw how bad things were in Kiri I couldn't just sit around doing nothing, especially since the guy who was responsible for all the bad stuff that was happening was a jinchuriki like me." _Man, it stinks that I can't even tell Tenten-chan about the fact that I was following the Old Man's orders. And even if I could tell her that everything I did helping the rebels in Kiri was alright, I'd still have to lie about Yagura, because otherwise it could cause trouble if the news ever got back to Kiri. I don't like having to lie to Tenten-chan._

Tenten sighed and dropped her head into her hands. "Naruto, you can't go running off to save people every time bad things happen to them or something goes wrong, that's just the way the world works. I know you were just trying to do the right thing, and it obviously worked out pretty well since you came back in one piece and Kiri has a new ruler now, but you can't just do that kind of thing all the time. One day you're going to run into someone who's too strong for you; imagine what would have happened if you had to fight the fourth Mizukage while you were working with the Kiri rebels!"

"Well, what was I supposed to do?" Naruto shot back. "Just sit on my ass and say 'it's not my problem' when people were dying and they needed help?"

Tenten sighed again, then looked over at the boy and shot him a weak smile. "Yeah, I guess you couldn't ever do something like that, could you?" The girl threw an arm across Naruto's shoulders, and then reached up to ruffle the boy's hair. "I swear, some day you're going to get yourself into more trouble than you know how to deal with, and then I'm going to have to save your ass again."

"Hey, last time that happened I ended up saving your ass, Tenten-chan." Naruto reminded the girl with a smirk.

"True, but the only reason my ass needed saving in the first place was because I was got into a fight with a special jonin jinchuriki while trying to save your ass." Tenten replied, matching the boy's smirk with one of her own. "So, that really shouldn't count, because it was all your fault anyway."

"You're just trying to dodge the fact that I saved your ass." Naruto crossed his arms over his chest and scowled petulantly at the girl. "It's not my fault I'm so much more awesome than you are, Tenten-chan." Naruto smirked, and then added. "I can understand why you might be jealous though; sometimes I can't even hear myself think over the sound of how awesome I am."

"No, you can't hear yourself think because you're an idiot." Tenten teased. The girl rapped her knuckles against Naruto's head and declared. "See, your head's hollow; no brains at all."

"You're mean, Tenten-chan." The boy pouted.

"Hey, just because you're an idiot doesn't mean you've stopped being my best friend." Tenten assured the boy. "The fact that you always want to stupidly rush in and do the right thing is one of your better traits." Tenten paused for a moment, then admitted "Well, it would be if it didn't scare the crap out of me and make me worry so much about you."

"You worry about me?" Naruto asked, his tone turning slightly more serious.

"Of course I do." Tenten told the boy. "You are my best friend after all. Besides, if I'm not around to keep an eye on you then you'd probably end up getting yourself into all kinds of trouble. I mean, look at what happened just a while ago; I let you out of my sight for a couple weeks and you're running around joining foreign rebellions and toppling long-established rulers, and that's just what I know you've been up to." Tenten grinned at the boy and declared, "With as much trouble as you're constantly getting yourself into, I'm probably going to be stuck keeping an eye on you for the rest of my life."

"Heh, yeah, I guess you will." Naruto agreed with a self-deprecating chuckle. "Geez, I'll bet that even when I'm the Hokage you'll still be running all over the place trying to nurture me and stuff."

"Well, someone has to take care of you." Tenten reminded the boy. "And since nobody else seems to be volunteering for the role I suppose it's up to me." Tenten grimaced, and then added. "Well, unless you'd rather have one of your new fangirls take up the job."_ I still can't believe there are girls chasing after Naruto, I mean, he's a nice guy once you get to know him, but he's not the type to attract shallow girls who aren't interested in anything besides a pretty face and their own childish fantasies._

Naruto felt a twinge of nervous fear when he saw a less than pleased expression make its way onto Tenten's face when she mentioned his budding fan club. _Man, Tenten-chan looks kinda scary; I guess she really doesn't like the idea of other girls chasing after me_. "Um, I think I'd rather have you around than any of the girls who say they've got a crush on me; most of them only seem interested 'cause of the Nine Tailed Fox, and not because they actually know anything about me anyway."

"Good answer." Tenten said, an enigmatic smile making its way onto her face. The girl glanced down at her half-filled ramen bowl, and then slid it over to Naruto. "I'm full, you can finish my ramen off, Naruto." The boy needed no further encouragement to begin gobbling down the precious nectar of life that was Ichiraku ramen.

Naruto had just about finished Tenten's leftover ramen when four more people entered the ramen stand. "Naruto-kun," the leader of the small group called out, "I thought I might find you here."

Naruto's head whipped around to the entrance, leaving several ramen noodles dangling out of the boy's mouth. After taking a moment to finish the noodles and try to regain a small measure of his lost dignity the boy said. "Hi Kurenai-san. How've you been?"

"Well enough." The red-eyed woman answered. Gesturing to the trio of new ninja behind her, the woman announced. "My genin team: Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka, and Hinata Hyuuga." The woman pointed to a young man wearing a heavy coat and sunglasses, a wild-looking boy with a puppy riding on his head, and petite and timid pale-eyed girl. Turning her attention back to her genin, the jonin informed them. "These are genin of Team Gai; Naruto Uzumaki, Rock Lee, and Tenten."

"So you're the Fox?" Kiba demanded, sizing Naruto up with a confident smirk on his face. "After how much everyone was going on about you I thought you'd be a big scary badass, not a wimpy little shrimp."

"Appearances can be deceiving, Kiba." Shino declared calmly, adjusting his sunglasses.

"Yes, from what Kurenai-sensei told us Naruto-san is very strong." Hinata offered hesitantly. "Um, from what she said Naruto-san seems like a nice person too, even if many of the people in the village think he's dangerous." The shy girl was blushing furiously by the end of her short statement, obviously uncomfortable with being the center of attention, even within a relatively small group.

"As I said, appearances can be deceiving." Shino repeated his statement in exactly the same tone he had used before. "However, in the absence of any other information it would seem reasonable to defer to Kurenai-sensei's judgement. Why? Because she is the only person on our team who has spent a significant amount of time in Naruto's company."

"He still doesn't look that tough to me." Kiba scoffed. "Geez, I was hoping the kid they stuck the Nine Tailed Fox into would be a big strong scary guy, so I could fight him and kick his ass."

"You do realize Naruto could beat your entire team without breaking a sweat, don't you?" Tenten asked, casually putting a hand on Naruto's shoulder in a show of support. "He's the strongest genin on our team, and probably the strongest ninja in our entire year; I bet he could even beat a lot of shinobi and kunoichi that are older than him."

Kurenai glanced over at Naruto and Tenten, her gaze briefly lingering on the way Tenten's hand was resting comfortably on Naruto's shoulder, and a slight smile made its way onto the jonin's face. "Naruto is quite strong; from what I saw of his abilities in the brief time that we worked together before he ran off have his misadventures in Kiri, I would have to go all-out to win a fight with him if he was truly enraged and believe his cause was righteous." _And even that probably wouldn't be enough; the sheer power of his chakra when the Fox took over was horrifying. What makes it even scarier is that from Gai and Kakashi said he's still only tapped into a fraction of the Fox's power. The thought of a twelve year old boy who could potentially wield all the power of the Nine Tailed Fox … it's no wonder so many people are scared of him._

"Jinchuriki are supposed to possess powers beyond those of ordinary ninja, and he has an entire year of field experience." Shino added. "If Kurenai-sensei believes that Naruto-san is actually that powerful, then it seems reasonable to accept her judgment unless there is hard evidence to disprove her conclusions; she is an experienced jonin, whereas we are still relatively new and inexperienced genin."

"We'll see." Kiba declared skeptically. The animalistic boy sniffed a couple times, then frowned and looked at the other two members of Team Gai. "Hey, why do you guys smell like shit?"

Tenten and Lee groaned. _Why can't we be done with sewer duty already? At this rate the smell's never going to go away!_

* * *

_Alright Fox, gimme some of your chakra, but just a little bit_. A wave of power and animalistic rage slammed into Naruto's body, and a wreath of demonic orange chakra surrounded him. Normally Naruto only practiced with the Fox's chakra in the early hours of the morning or late at night, but yesterday Kakashi had told the boy about a relatively isolated training area he could use to practice undisturbed. While Naruto did not have to keep his work with the Fox's chakra a secret, people were nervous enough about him being a jinchuriki when the boy was not openly channeling the power of the Nine Tailed Fox, so he generally tried to confine his practice sessions to places and times when nobody else was around.

In the initial aftermath of the battle with Yagura, Naruto had seriously considered giving up on training with the Fox's chakra, at least until he had a better idea what he was doing. Under the Fox's influence he had unintentionally injured two of his comrades, and the thought that such an incident might happen again terrified the boy. Next time it might not be Kakashi or the new Mizukage who got hurt; the thought of hurting Lee or especially Tenten made the boy sick to his stomach. While Naruto had been aware of the fact that using the Fox's chakra could result in the Fox taking over, actually experiencing that loss of control was quite different from possessing the theoretical knowledge that the Fox could take over his body. In the aftermath of the incident, Naruto had several nightmares involving another loss of control, which inevitably resulted in the death of one of his comrades, usually Tenten.

Shortly after his return to Konoha, Naruto sought out his sensei and conveyed his concerns to the man. Gai treated Naruto to a bowl of Ichiraku ramen and listened patiently while the boy spilled out his worries and fears. When the boy had finally finished speaking, Gai asked a single question. "Naruto, how do you plan to make sure you never lose control again?"

"Well, I figured the only way I could be sure is if I never use the Fox's chakra again." Naruto offered.

"Could you really do that?" Gai asked. "Could you go through your entire life without ever being tempted to use that power?" Seeing the boy's frown, Gai added. "I am not saying you are power-hungry, Naruto. However, let me ask you a question. What if, during a mission, you encounter an opponent who is simply too powerful to be defeated with just your own strength? Would you be willing to die rather than use the power of the Nine Tailed Fox?" Before Naruto could find the answer to this question, Gai struck at his weak point. "What if it was Tenten that was about to die? Could you simply allow that to happen while you had the power to save her, however dangerous that power might be?"

"No, I couldn't do that." Naruto admitted, frowning down at his ramen bowl. _Yeah, the Fox chakra might make me go nuts, but if it was the only way I could save her…_ Naruto sighed. "But if I use that I might end up just killing her myself. Dammit! I'm screwed no matter what I do! Sooner or later a mission'll go bad enough that I'll need the Fox's chakra, or I'll get pissed off enough that I end up using it without meaning to!"

"Exactly." Gai agreed. "You cannot ever truly cut yourself off from the Nine Tailed Fox, and there is no way to remove it. So, if you simply deny the power of the Nine Tailed Fox, what is the best way to keep Tenten and the rest of your comrades safe?"

After pondering the matter for a few seconds, Naruto declared. "Well, if I could make sure I don't go nuts when I start using the Fox's power, then it wouldn't matter if I used it or not. I'm kinda hoping that once we get that info we've been waiting on from Kiri I'll be able to figure out how to do that, but what the heck am I supposed to do until then? And – and what if he didn't write all his secrets down? Most ninjas keep their best jutsu and tricks pretty carefully hidden."

"Naruto, who do you think taught Yagura how to control his Tailed Beast?" Gai asked his student.

"Um – nobody said anything about that, so I don't think anybody did." Naruto's eyes widened in sudden comprehension. "Wait a minute, if he figured it out all by himself, then doesn't that mean I could do the same thing?" The boy bolted to his feet, fire in his eyes. "Screw waiting around moping until Kiri gives me some sort of shortcut to figure all this jinchuriki crap out, I'm gonna do it by myself! It's like you always say, Gai-sensei; as long as I'm willing to work hard I can figure out just about anything!"

"Indeed you can, my brilliant young student!" Gai assured the boy, offering him a brilliant smile of encouragement. "So long as you have faith in yourself, I believe that you will find a way to control the Nine Tailed Fox!"

Ever since that conversation, Naruto had devoted a fair portion of his free time to practicing with the Fox's chakra. He still had to spend a lot of time working for the Hokage, and then there was practice with his team and the new jutsu he and Tenten were working on, but the boy made sure to get in a couple hours of Fox chakra practice every day. The theory behind his practice was quite simple; the boy drew out relatively small portions of the Fox's chakra and then worked on his ability to control and manipulate that chakra. He was not certain how much good the practice actually did, but it was the best way Naruto could think of to get used to controlling the Fox's chakra. Once Naruto mastered his control over small amounts of the chakra, he could move on to practicing with the big stuff, like tailed chakra cloaks.

While the practice seemed quite simple in theory, Naruto was still having a difficult time with it. Getting the Fox's chakra was quite simple, all Naruto usually had to do was ask, and maybe put up with the Fox going on about how he was a worthless weakling who could only become great by using it's power. However, while getting the Fox's chakra was relatively simple, using it without experiencing even the slightest loss of control was, so far, outside of Naruto's abilities. While the Fox's animalistic rage did not control Naruto with such a small amount or chakra, whenever Naruto drew upon the Fox's power he could feel the anger coursing through his body. Naruto was not certain, but he suspected that being able to use some the Fox's chakra while he was completely calm and in control would be the first step to ensuring that he would never hand his body over to the Fox again.

Just when Naruto felt like he was starting to make progress with the Fox's chakra, the boy's concentration was disrupted by a listless call of "Oh, hey there Naruto, forgot you would be here." Naruto jumped in surprise, and whirled around to see Kakashi standing about ten meters away next to a trio of logs set into the ground. The jonin was accompanied by a trio of kids, presumably his new genin team; Naruto recognized Sakura Haruno's distinctive pink hair right away, and he was not surprised to see that the only other sharingan user in Konoha had Sasuke Uchiha on his team. The third member of the team was some other girl Naruto vaguely recognized, who had long black hair and was wearing a red outfit. _What was her name? Oh right – Akane Shatsu._

"Hey Kakashi." Naruto called out, waving to the jonin with a hand coated in the chakra of the Nine Tailed Fox. "How you doing?" Noting the nervous expressions on the new genins' faces and attributing their trepidation to the casual tone he was taking with their sensei, Naruto explained. "Kakashi told me I didn't have to bother being all formal and crap after that last mission we did together. He's like a crazy perverted uncle who shows up every once in a while and teaches me awesome stuff, then disappears for a couple months."

"Oh, hey, that reminds me…" Kakashi reached into his back pocket and pulled out a scroll. "I'll probably be busy training these kids, so I won't be able to be your crazy perverted uncle who teaches you awesome stuff any more." The jonin tossed the scroll over to Naruto. "This ought to keep you busy for a while though." _Naruto's a fast learner, but trying to learn that jutsu ought to keep him busy for years. _Kakashi looked back at his students and added. "By the way, you might want to cut out on the Fox chakra, I think it's scaring the kids."

"Huh? Oh, right." Naruto concentrated for a few seconds, and the aura of orange chakra slowly faded away. "Heh, sorry if I scared you, but you guys did kinda interrupt my training." Naruto shot a wide grin over at the new genin, and then turned his gaze back to Kakashi. "So, I guess if you think you're gonna busy training these guys that means they passed your test, right?"

"Not yet." Kakashi answered with a shrug. "Then again, Sasuke was the top student in his class, so he might be able to manage where everyone else failed." _Of course, I'm not too happy with the rest of my team; both of the girls seem more interested in their crush on Sasuke than in being competent ninjas, and I'm not sure how they'll function as a team since he's not interested in either of them. Well, I guess if he ignores them both equally then they might eventually move on._ Turning his attention back to his students, Kakashi said. "Hey, you guys know Naruto Uzumaki, the jinchuriki of the Nine Tailed Fox, right?"

"Yes, he pranked me once." Sakura said, her tone worryingly flat.

"I didn't mean to." Naruto said, sounding a bit worried. "Besides, that was, like, a year ago, so why don't we just forgive and forget?"

"Mizuki-sensei said you didn't plan to prank me, so I won't hold a grudge." Sakura said amicably, before narrowing her eyes at the boy in a glare. "But if you ever prank me on purpose then so help me I'll…" Sakura trailed off, but cracked her knuckles to emphasize her point.

"Um, I haven't really been pranking anybody for a while now, so that won't be a problem." Naruto told the girl. _Geez, why do girls have to get so scary sometimes?_ "I mean, it was mostly just a stupid kid thing I used to do because I was tired of dealing with people who didn't like me because of the Nine Tailed Fox and everything."

"Oh – right." Sakura said softly, her lingering anger over the prank fading as she remembered the recently revealed piece of new regarding the Uzumaki boy. "Um, I guess I don't really care about that." The girl said uncertainly. "I mean, Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei boy said you're containing the Fox, not the Fox itself like my parents thought, and even if you can use a bit of its chakra it's not controlling you or anything, so I guess that's alright then." Sakura was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable with this topic, especially since she could still remember her parents warning her to avoid the boy on several occasions before the truth about Naruto had come out. _I never understood what their problem with Naruto was; he always seemed like a nice enough boy, even if he was a bit of an annoying prankster (although some of his pranks were pretty funny when they weren't happening to me). I guess they must hate him because of the Nine Tailed Fox, but from what Iruka-sensei said that's not fair; it's not like Naruto had any choice about having the Fox sealed within him._

Sasuke studied the other boy with interest while Naruto and Sakura spoke with each other. _He's the same age as I am, but he's already been a ninja for a year, and if all the rumors about what he was up to in Kiri are true…_ Sasuke grimaced. _I have to be the best if I'm ever going to avenge my clan; Itachi was already a chunin by the time he was my age, and a year away from becoming an ANBU captain, while I've just now graduated from the Academy. If I can't even catch up with someone like Uzumaki, who's the same age as I am, there's no way I'll ever be able to catch up with Itachi. I have a lot of work to do if I'm ever going to avenge my clan, first I have to beat Uzumaki, then the older genin like last year's top student, Neji Hyuuga, then the chunin and jonin, and then maybe I'll be ready for Itachi._

Sasuke turned his sensei and asked a question. "Kakashi-sensei, jinchuriki are supposed to be really strong, right?" When the jonin answered Sasuke's question with a nod, the boy shifted his gaze to Naruto. "Can I spar with Uzumaki before we take our exam? I've heard a lot of rumors, and I'd like to see just how good he really is."

_Hmm. I wanted them all fairly fresh for this test, but I suppose there's no harm in it, and seeing Sasuke get pounded might make my team's kunoichi a little less focused on him_. "As long as Naruto's up for it I suppose there's no harm, but you're going to lose."

"Sure, why not?" Naruto agreed with a careless shrug. _Sparring with Bushy Brows or Gai-sensei or Tenten-chan is fun, but it's always interesting to change things up a bit_. "I don't have any blunted sparring weapons on me though, so unless you guys have spares I'll have to do without." The boy gave a careless shrug, and then walked over to one of the reasonably open areas on the training ground. "Well, ready whenever you are."

Sasuke strode over to the boy, but rather than announce that he was ready the Uchiha frowned. "You're not going to use that Fox chakra you were working with earlier? I want you to come at me with everything you have."

"Eh, I don't know if that's a good idea." Naruto said worriedly. "I might end up hurting you if I did that."

"I can handle whatever you've got." Sasuke declared coolly, prompting his two teammates to sigh and mutter approvingly of how amazing he was. "Besides, if you don't come at me with everything you've got, you just might lose."

"Alright, if you're sure that's how you wanna do things." Naruto said uncertainly, slightly releived when he saw Kakashi give a slight nod of encouragement _It might be good to practice working with this chakra in a fight anyway; big difference between controlling it in the middle of an empty training ground and having to do the same thing during a fight_. Naruto concentrated for a few seconds, and the flickering aura of orange chakra surrounded him once more. "Right, I'm ready when you are."

"I'm ready." Sasuke declared. "Let's see how good you-" _Shit that's fast!_ Naruto's foot slammed into Sasuke's chest in a passable imitation of Gai's Leaf Whirlwind attack, sending the Uchiha flying to bounce off a tree before he collapsed to the ground.

"Oops, looks like I overdid it a bit." Naruto said sheepishly, restraining the chakra of the Nine Tailed Fox once more. _Well, he did ask me to come at him with everything I had, so it's pretty much his own fault_. "Hey, you alright?"

_Taken down with a single hit before I even had a chance to defend myself; is that how wide the gap between us is? And catching up with Uzumaki is only the first step; it will take me even longer to train myself up to Itachi's level._ Sasuke slammed a fist into the ground and let out a growl of mixed pain and frustration, slowly forcing himself to his feet. _I haven't even managed to awaken my sharingan yet, while Itachi had his for four years when he was my age; at this rate I'll never be able to get enough power to catch up with Itachi and avenge my clan!_ Pain lanced through Sasuke's side, and the Uchiha collapsed to the ground once more.

Kakashi moved up to Sasuke and gently poked the boy's side, drawing another pained hiss from the Uchiha. "Looks like Naruto busted one of your ribs." Kakashi told his student. "Next time, you might want to think twice before asking a stronger, more experienced opponent to go all-out on you."

"I needed to know how far ahead of me he was." Sasuke replied, his voice coming out in a pained growl.

"Oh, so that's what you were up to." Kakashi said mildly. "In that case, you might want to thank him for not going along with that stupid request of yours; if he had really gone after you with everything he had you'd be dead right now."

Sasuke froze in place for a moment, and then slammed a fist into the tree he had cracked a rib against. _He crushed me with a single hit, and he wasn't even trying? Dammit! If a talented genin who's the same age as me can be this far ahead of where I am, how much worse is Itachi going to be by now? If I don't start getting stronger a lot faster than I've been doing then I'll never be able to catch up with him!_

"Well, I suppose I better get Sasuke to the hospital before that rib of his goes from cracked to broken." Kakashi said mildly. "Luckily, it shouldn't take a real medical ninja more than a couple minutes to patch up something as simple as a cracked rib, so we can still do your qualifying exam a bit later today." _The delay just means they'll be even hungrier when they get their food and the real test starts, so no harm done. I should probably tie up one of the girls; if I tied up Sasuke then one of the girls might break the rules because she wants to impress Sasuke instead of doing it for the right reasons._ "Well, see you later Naruto, good luck on figuring out that jutsu scroll." The jonin gave a lazy wave in the boy's direction before walking off with his wounded Uchiha charge.

Naruto eagerly opened the scroll, only to grimace in frustration when he realized just how complicated the jutsu was. _Man, it's gonna take me forever to learn this, especially when I'm still working on the Fox chakra, doing stuff for the Old Man, and that new trick Tenten-chan and I are working on. Oh well, I'll find the time to figure this jutsu out sooner or later; it does look pretty freaking awesome after all._

* * *

**A/N:** OCs whose names are puns or tasteless jokes are always amusing, and quite in keeping with the spirit of Naruto. Also, I made a couple tweaks to Chapters 1 and 2; nothing major, just a little extra description and setting up one or two things that will matter later on in the story.

Life is getting crazier than usual for me, so the next update might take a bit; it should not take any longer than two weeks though. Good thing I am right at the start of the next arc this time, instead of having a short pause right in the middle of the final battle.


	13. Warnings and Reunions

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Naruto

* * *

"Finally!" Naruto punched a fist triumphantly into the air and grinned at the Hokage from across his small desk, which was now clear of its usual mass of paperwork. "I've been doing your stupid paperwork for five freaking months, but now that the Chunin Exam is coming up next week I'm finally free of all this annoying crap! No more form A17-45C, no more stupid requisition orders, just freedom; glorious, glorious freedom!" _Although it hasn't all been that bad; getting to see the Old Man in action has taught me a lot about what the Hokage actually does, and it was kinda neat how he sometimes let me make little decisions or asked me for advice. I might even miss getting to hang out with him a bit; the Old Man's really pretty cool once you get to know him._

"I think the burdens of preparing for and participating in Chunin Exams will impinge upon your newfound sense of freedom, Naruto; you're not going to have much free time for a while." Hiruzen informed the boy; the old man had a slight smile on his weathered face. "You're too close to the exams for any serious missions, and I expect that if you're not going to be training by yourself your sensei will have no shortage of exercises for you."

"Yeah, Gai-sensei has been training us pretty hard whenever we get a chance to work as a team on stuff, and he gave me stuff to work on by myself as well." Naruto agreed. "Of course, we don't get to do nearly as much team training as much as we used to; I've got a couple things I'm working on by myself, and then there's the jutsu TenTen-chan and I are both working on together, and between that and working for I've been pretty busy." _Y'know, now that I think about it, it's been a while since we had one of those full-team meetings; I've been too busy with my own little projects, and Gai-sensei's not too picky about us always training with him, so long as we still keep training by ourselves._

"Do you think you're ready for the Exams?" The Hokage asked, already certain what Naruto's answer would be.

"Yeah, I'm gonna kick ass." Naruto declared confidently. "I mean, I think I've gotten pretty strong with all the practice and training I've gotten in; I can use the Fox's chakra just about perfectly at a basic level, and I think I'm starting to figure out how to do a single-tailed cloak while keeping everything together. My taijutsu's pretty good; not as good as Bushy Brows of course, but it's close, and I've got lots of tricks up my sleeve. With the wind chakra my ninjutsu is pretty solid; once I get everything else done and make chunin I'm planning to see about learning another element. It'll probably be earth or water; from what Kakashi told me it's harder to learn elements that are opposed to your natural type." _Too bad I don't have one of ose Kekkei Genkai that combine two different elements to make a third one; having two elements I'm naturally good at, and being able to use both them and the combined element without really needing any training would've saved me a lot of time when it comes to learning all this crap._

"What about genjutsu? As I recall that's your weakest skill." _Considering his skill with ninjutsu Naruto will probably make special jonin within a year of the Chunin exams; his ability to use shadow clones while training will help him learn a second element fairly quickly, and betweenhis jinchuriki chakra reserves and his heritage Naruto is likely to be quite dangerous with ninjutus, especially once he masters some of his father's techniques. Still, good ninjutsu will not be enough to make full jonin; he will never be a solid, well-rounded ninja if he remains entirely hopeless with genjutsu._

"Yeah, about genjutsu – well, I still don't really know much about using it yet, but I can shake off most of the simple ones; I've been getting some practice with TenTen-chan and Gai-sensei when I get a chance to work with them, and sometimes Kurenai-san lets me sit in on counter-genjutsu practice with her team." _Kurenai-san's team isn't so bad; that Shino guy's a bit creepy, Kiba's a bit of an asshole, and Hinata's so shy and quiet you can forget she's there, but they're pretty decent all around, especially once I got to know them a bit._

"So, you are at least continuing to make progress?" Hiruzen asked.

"Yeah, and for the tough stuff I've still got teammates to help me by breaking me out of them. The Fox can also break me out of the tougher ones if it wants too, but that's not something I wanna get used to counting on." Naruto frowned and added. "The Fox might not want me getting killed, but there's a lot of ways it can screw things up for me that I'll still end up surviving, and I figure if I start depending on it too much the Fox might screw me over one day when I least expect it. Besides, it's always going on about how I'm all weak and helpless if I don't have it helping me out, so I wanna get good at beating genjutsu just to show that stupid furball that it's wrong! Sure, being a jinchuriki has its good points, but I'm not gonna let the Fox think that just 'cause it's in my body that means I'd be a crappy, helpless ninja who couldn't take care of himself without a Tailed Beast inside me."

"That seems wise; while the Nine Tailed Fox is undoubtedly a useful tool, I think growing too dependent upon it would be hazardous." The Hokage agreed. "It is, after all, the Nine Tailed fox is still a powerful being with its own agenda, and its goals will not always be the same as yours." Hiruzen looked the boy over, and offered a slight smile. "I think you're ready for the Chunin Exams, and I fully expect you to earn your promotion."

"Yeah, I'm gonna kick ass!" Naruto glanced at the Hokage and chuckled, a devious expression on his face. "Hey, Old Man, since we're friends now, why don't you give me a couple hints about what the Exam's gonna be like? I mean, since you're in charge of the village you probably know all about it, right?"

"I couldn't do that, Naruto." Hiruzen chided the boy. "The Exam is supposed to be an evaluation of your skills, and foreknowledge of the tasks would skew the results of the examination. Besides, don't you want to earn your promotion fairly, instead of getting it just because you're on good terms with the Hokage."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Naruto nodded. _Although you'd think being all sneaky and finding a way to get every advantage you could wouldn't be too much of a problem since this is a ninja test; we're supposed to be sneaky and break the rules_.

"However," Hiruzen held up a hand to forestall any further comments from the boy, "there are a few things you should probably know about your competition in the exams."

"Really? Like what?"

"First, there will be another jinchuriki participating in the exams." The Hokage reached into his desk and pulled out a single sheet of paper, dominated by a picture of a boy with reddish-brown hair and dark circles under his blue-green eyes. "This is Gaara, jinchuriki of the One Tailed Tanuki."

"Oh yeah, I've heard of this guy before!" Naruto quickly looked over the rest of the information on the Hokage's report to confirm a few of the things Yugito had told him about the Suna jinchuriki. "Wait – if his Dad'd been trying to get rid of him for years, then why's he sending him to the Chunin Exams?"

"Likely because of you." Hiruzen answered. "You and Gaara are the same age, so it is no surprise that the Kazekage would want to use you in order to measure Gaara's abilities, especially after your adventures in Kiri brought you to the attention of the ninja world. Gaara will almost certainly fight you at some point during the Exams; if he wins then Suna will gain a great deal of prestige, and if he is killed in battle then the Kazekage will no longer have to worry about the boy."

"What if I don't kill him when we fight?" Naruto asked. "I mean, I know there's always a chance that people might die when you start fighting, but the Chunin Exams are just a test of our skills, so I'm not gonna be trying to kill him."

"Even if Gaara survives the match, he would no doubt be very weak after his battle with you; most tournament battles end with the loser badly injured or unconscious." Hiruzen gave a slight shrug. "That would be an ideal time for another assassination attempt on Gaara, would it not?"

"Yeah, I guess." Naruto agreed. "So basically, whichever way the fight turns out, the Kazekage comes out on top; either Gaara wins and everyone thinks that Suna is really strong, or Gaara loses and the Kazekage can finally get rid of him." Naruto grimaced. "I'm definitely planning to win the fight, but I don't like the idea of another jinchuriki getting killed 'cause I helped soften him up first. Isn't there something we can do about it?"

"How the Kazekage chooses to treat one of his genin is an internal affair, and Konoha cannot interfere without provoking an incident between our villages." Hiruzen informed the boy. "Any action I could take to protect the boy would be seen as a gross violation of Suna's sovereignty; it could undermine or even destroy our alliance. The alliance is tenuous enough as it is; Suna is significantly weaker than Konoha, and fears becoming yet another client village of Konoha's, like Takigakure or Kusagakure. Any attempt on my part to interfere in the Kazekage's management of his own village would only serve to further encourage the perception that Konoha seeks to reduce Suna from an ally to a client. Konoha will not endanger its alliance with Suna for the sake of a single foreign genin, jinchuriki or not."

"So, so you'd just let it happen?" Naruto scowled at Hiruzen, his eyes narrowed in a furious glare. "I mean, I get that we've gotta keep from screwing up our alliance with Suna, but there's gotta be something we can do to stop the Kazekage, right?"

"I'm afraid my hands are tied; any action I take would inevitably be seen as a reflection of Konoha's official policy." Hiruzen grimaced down at his desk, then glanced at the boy and offered a slight smirk. "On the other hand, if a ninja who already has an established reputation for acting against orders decided to take action on his own, with no official sanction, then the diplomatic fallout would not be nearly so severe. While there would still be repercussions, it would understood that the ninja's actions do not represent any official policy of Konoha's, we all understand how impulsive youngsters can be sometimes. The incident might even go entirely unreported; no Kage would ever admit that his plans were foiled by a mere genin."

"So, you're saying you can't do anything, but I can something about it on my own?" Naruto asked for confirmation.

"I'm certain I said nothing of the sort." Hiruzen deadpanned, though there was the slightest of smirks on the old man's face. "You know how old men like me are; our minds start to wander, and sometimes we just start speculating out loud about random topics, completely unaware of anyone else in the room who might be listening."

"Yeah, you old guys can get pretty absent-minded." Naruto agreed readily.

The Hokage gave a merry chuckle at Naruto's continued insolence, but once his amusement at the boy's antics faded his expression hardened. "Be careful with Gaara, Naruto. Suna's jinchuriki have a reputation for being very unstable; since Suna only has one jinchuriki, and its Tailed Beast the weakest of the lot in terms of raw chakra power, they have taken extreme measures to retain parity with the other villages. The seal Suna uses allows it's jinchuriki to use incredible amounts of their Tailed Beast's chakra on a subconscious, instinctual level. It makes the jinchuriki dangerously unstable, and judging by Suna's last two jinchuriki, they eventually go completely mad."

"Wait – so you're saying this Gaara guy is probably completely nuts by now?" A worried frown made its way onto Naruto's face.

Hiruzen sighed heavily. "If Gaara's instability has reached dangerous levels it would explain why the Kazekage has been trying to kill him for several years. I understand you might sympathize with Gaara's plight, but if he truly is mad then the Kazekage might be justified in his actions. If Gaara has become a threat to his village then it would be his duty as a Kage ti remove him." _I am glad I never had to face that possibility with Naruto; the boy seems stable, and is devoted to protecting Konoha and his friends._

Naruto frowned in thought for a few moments, and then gave a sharp nod. "Alright I'll wait and see what this Gaara guy is like before I make any big decisions about what I'm gonna do about him and his dad. I don't wanna kill another jinchuriki, but if he's dangerous…" Naruto trailed off, then grimaced and asked. "Geez, you gotta wonder why the people in Suna think it's a good idea to combine extra-strong with extra-crazy; it's not that hard to see that it has a lot of potential to go horribly wrong."

"Desperation can make people take desperate risks." Hiruzen informed the boy. "Suna is so frightened by the possibility of falling behind the other villages and losing thier status as a great power that they are willing to take dangerous, or even foolish, risks to maintain their position. In the shinobi world weakness is an invitation to attack, and Suna's strength has declined in recent years; they simply don't have the funding to maintain the same number of ninja that villages like Konoha and Kumo can field; once Kiri recovers from their civil war and finishes rebuilding Suna will likely be the weakest of the Five Great Shinobi Villages."

"So, since they feel like they're weak, they're gonna do whatever it takes to catch up." Naruto summarized. "Guess that makes sense." Naruto stood up from his desk and stretched, his eyes drifting to the doors. "Anyway, I probably oughta get to training; if I'm gonna end up getting mixed up in politics again instead of just doing the Chunin Exam normally I'm probably gonna need even more training than I'd planned."

"Wait, Naruto; there is one other matter you need to be informed of." Hiruzen told the boy, offering him another sheet of paper. _Naruto probably won't take this news well, but it's better that he find out now and from me than discovering it on his own or being surprised by it at the worst possible time._

Naruto quickly read over the information provided by the Hokage, then turned a scowl upon the old man. "Is this some kind of joke? 'Cause it's not funny, Old Man."

"I assure you, it's entirely serious." Hiruzen declared flatly.

"What the hell, Old Man?" Naruto demanded. "Our Chunin Exams are supposed to just be for our own ninjas and those from villages allied with Konoha! Letting in a team from a non-allied nation participate is a big security risk, and I can't believe you're allowing – "

"That's enough, Naruto!" The Hokage snapped, cutting off the boy's rant before it could gain any momentum. When the boy remained silent, though still seething with unreleased anger, Hiruzen continued in a calmer tone. "I am aware of the risks involved, but I believe that the situation can be contained, and that any other course of action is riskier; at least this way we'll know what they're up to and who we need to watch. I understand you have reasonable personal concerns, which is why I am warning you about this now, but the decision has already been made. Whatever your personal feelings might be, I expect you to set them aside and do what is right for the village. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand Hokage-sama." Naruto responded stiffly, barely restraining the urge to continue shouting at the ruler of Konoha.

_Naruto is being formal and respectful while we're in private; always a bad sign. Naruto's lack of respectful behavior is its own strange kind of respect; he would never be so casual with someone he didn't trust_. "Naruto, I can assure you that my ANBU will carefully monitor the situation, and at the first hint of anything improper they will take action. However-"

"Yeah, I understand what's going on." Naruto interrupted. "I mean, I really don't like it, and I won't deny I'm kinda pissed, but what's good for the village is more important than my whether I like the situation or not." Naruto's face shifted to a petulant scowl. "I bet going along with this was that Danzo asshole's idea, wasn't it?" When the Hokage confirmed Naruto's suspicions, Naruto glared at floor and grumbled. "I don't get why you keep that jerk around; he's always disagreeing with you and criticizing all your ideas." _Plus, I don't like the way he looks at me..._

"That is exactly why Danzo holds the position he does." Sarutobi informed the boy. "Danzo does disagree with me on almost every matter we discuss, but sometimes a single voice of dissent offers more insight than a dozen voices of agreement." Hiruzen gave a rueful grin and admitted. "Also, there are a few rare occasions when Danzo is right."

"Yeah, I guess it doesn't really help much if everyone around just agrees with you and goes along with whatever you say, even if it's completely idiotic." Naruto frowned in thought for a moment, and then added. "He's still an asshole though."

"Yes, but he is a useful asshole, and one that is utterly loyal to Konoha." _And, much as I dislike his methods, there are rare times when Danzo's way is the correct way._

"Alright, but if he doesn't give me some respect once I become the next Hokage I am so going to kick his ass." Naruto's mood brightened slightly, and he turned his gaze back to Hiruzen. "Was there anything else I need to know?"

"That is all, Naruto." _That went better than I was afraid it would; I suppose the occasional lessons I've given him about a Hokage's duty to the village have had an impact after all._

Naruto turned to the doors and was about to open then when he turned about and smirked at the Hokage before offering a final parting shot. "You know, Old Man, I bet it's gonna suck when you go back to having to do all your own paperwork, now that you've gotten used to having me around doing all the hard work for you." _I still don't like the decision he made here, but I don't want him thinking that just 'cause I disagree with him we're suddenly not friends anymore._

"I suppose." Hiruzen conceded, a slight smile on his face as he grasped the implicit peace offer that came with Naruto's renewal of his casual disrespect. "Then again, I could always just get another administrative assistant." The Old Man smirked back at the boy and asked. "Did you really think I did all of this paperwork myself when I could pay a genin like you to do it for me?" _Of course, Naruto did do the job quite a bit better than most of the people who I've used in the past, and I only had to pay him half of the normal rate thanks to our arrangement, so it will be a pity to lose him. Besides, he did make things a little more lively than most of the other assistants I've had in the past._

"Geez, sometimes your habit of being all cool and spoiling my moments of awesomeness can get as bad as Kakashi." Naruto grinned at Hiruzen, then turned around and walked out the doors. "Later, Old Man; next time you see me I'm gonna be a chunin." _Y'know, it'll be nice not to be stuck in an office for hours at a time, but I'm gonna miss hanging out with the Old Man; despite being all old and stuff, he's pretty cool._

Now that his long prison sentence as the buffer between the Hokage and all the minor bureaucratic annoyances of Konoha's government and society had finally come to an end, Naruto was eager to get back to training with his team again. _I've been spending plenty of time with TenTen-chan since we're still working on that new jutsu we're gonna use for the Chunin Exams, but I haven't gotten to spend much time with Bushy Brows or Gai-sensei lately. Sure, training and stuff is important, and the Old Man kept me pretty busy, but if Bushy Brows and I are really friends we need to hang out more._

It didn't take the young jinchuriki long to make his way to the training fields, and after checking a couple of them and briefly interrupting one of Team Ten's practice sessions he found his teammates. "Hey TenTen-chan, Bushy Brows!" Naruto called out cheerfully, waving to his two teammates from the other end of the training field. _Looks like Bushy Brows is practicing his taijutsu; big surprise. What's TenTen-chan doing though? Are those kunai she's using glowing? Must be some new jutsu that she's working on; I know she's been trying to a find a way to get her ranged attacks past Futon: Disruption Wave since I can pretty much shut her down completely just by using that jutsu…_

Naruto's suspicions received confirmation when TenTen let out a startled cry, and quickly hid her weapons from Naruto's line of sight. A few seconds later the girl was waving back at the boy, and the weapons she had been working with before Naruto arrived were safely stowed back in one of her scrolls. "Hey Naruto!" The girl ran up to Naruto, a brilliant smile on her face. "So, you've finally finished your punishment duty with the Hokage? That's great, Lee and I have missed having a chance to train together with you; it's been over a month since all three of us have been able to get together."

"Yeah, it does kinda suck that I haven't been able to hang out with my team much, but at least we had time to work that new jutsu of ours together, TenTen-chan." Naruto matched TenTen's smile with one of his own.

"Ah, hello Naruto-kun." Lee called out, waving to his teammate. "TenTen-san and I were just about to have a light sparring match, so I suppose once we finish you can take on the winner."

"No, let's do something different." TenTen suggested, still grinning at her best friend. "Now that Naruto's here we ought to include him; we don't want him feeling left out after all."

"Ah, yes of course, nobody should be left out of teamwork and training." Neither of the other genin noticed the slight frown on Lee's face. _Naruto-kun said he and TenTen-san have been working together on a new jutsu; I suppose it must be some sort of ninjutsu or genjutsu since they did not invite me to participate, but even though I am not good with anything but taijutsu it would have been nice to get an offer to work with them. I know Naruto-kun and TenTen-san have a special bond, but sometimes it feels like they are so close to each other that they completely forget that anybody else exists._ "Perhaps Naruto and I should spar, then?"

"Yeah, that sounds great!" Naruto eagerly agreed. "It's been way too long since I got to do some sparring with you, Bushy Brows." With a mischevious grin, Naruto suggested, "Let's not hold back too much; I wanna see just how good you've gotten. Try not to kick my ass too hard; I've been missing out on hours of training time every day thanks to being stuck in the Hokage's office."

"Don't underestimate yourself, Naruto." TenTen encouraged the boy, reaching over to give his shoulder a friendly squeeze. "You've been training twice as hard as usual to make up for not getting as much training time as you used to, and you've been training almost non-stop whenever you're out of the Hokage's office."

While the young jinchuriki's attention was on TenTen, Lee surreptitiously slipped off his weights "Yes, I am certain that our match will be a most youthful endeavor, Naruto-kun." Lee assured his opponent. _I am looking forward to seeing the results of all my hard work with Gai-sensei. Some of our peers think that because of his exploits in Kiri and the face that he is a jinchuriki Naruto must be a prodigy in the ninja arts; if that is the case, then I will prove that my hard work can match his natural genius._

"Yeah, this should be awesome." Naruto agreed cheerfully, waiting for TenTen to step off to the side before he dropped into a ready stance. "Bring it on, Bushy Brows!"

Lee wasted no time in complying with Naruto's request, rushing forward with all his speed and leaping into a Leaf Whirlwind kick. While Lee's execution of the attack was flawless, Naruto had been trained by the same sensei and knew the attack almost as well as Lee did, and thus the jinchuriki knew exactly how to avoid it. Lee followed the attack up with a quick one-two punch at Naruto's face that the blonde managed to block, but raising his arms to block Lee's punches obstructed Naruto's line of sight for a split second, which created an opening which Lee shot a sidekick into. Naruto saw the attack coming in time to roll with the blow, but he knew how close Lee had come too close to landing a solid hit. _I gotta get some distance; I might eventually be able to wear him down, but Bushy Brows is at his best in a close up fight like this, so I really need to switch things up so we're in a long-range fight where why ninjutsu can come into play. No reason to fight him at his strongest skill when I can fight him where he's weak while I can still use my best skills._

Naruto rushed Lee and lashed out with a clumsy kick that Lee easily blocked, deliberately leaving himself wide open for Lee's counter-attack. When the Lee obliged Naruto by launching a lightning-fast and extremely powerful kick, Naruto rode with the blow and used it to propel himself away from the taijutsu specialist. Safely clear of his opponent, Naruto created a small group of clones around himself, and moments later all but one of the Narutos were charging at his teammate.

_One holds back while the rest rush in to continue the fight; obviously, I am supposed to think that the one holding back is the real Naruto, while the rest are just a diversion meant to wear me down for when the real one strikes. However, I know Naruto well enough to realize that the one holding back is a trap; the real Naruto is mixed in with the rest of his clones, and if I go after the clone that is holding back from the group it will expose my back to the real Naruto, and that is when he will strike._

Confident that he had seen through Naruto's ploy, the green-clad genin rushed the group of clones and struck the nearest one, only to find himself suddenly off-balance when his foot passed through an illusion instead of making contact with anything solid. A moment later, the one of the other clones knocked the off-balance Lee to the ground with a tackle, and within a matter of seconds Lee had been dogpiled by all of the remaining clones.

"I figured it was a safe bet you'd go after the nearest clone, so I had the lead clone be an ordinary illusion instead of a solid shadow clone." Naruto announced from outside the mound of clones covering Lee. "I also thought you would expect me to try and trick you by holding back one clone as an obvious target while mixing myself up in the middle of the group since that's one of my favorite tricks, so this time I just actually stayed back and sent in all my clones." Naruto's hands shot through a quick sequence of seals. "Futon: Great Vacuum Sphere." A large, powerful wind sphere slammed into the mass of clones, scattering and dispelling the lot of them; the dust kicked up by the attack and the smoke from dozens of dispelled clones temporarily hid Lee from view.

"Naruto, I thought you said Vacuum Sphere was too dangerous to use in a friendly match, especially a big one like that!" TenTen shouted at the boy, shocked that the boy would use a potentially lethal attack against Lee. "What the hell were you thinking?! You might've really hurt Lee!"

"Hey, there were, like, a dozen clones between the actual jutsu and Bushy Brows!" Naruto shouted back. "If I hadn't used something pretty strong it wouldn't have gotten through all the clones to hit Lee, and by the time it got through all the clones it wasn't strong enough to hurt him too bad. Don't worry, he's fine."

Sure enough, when the smoke and dust cleared Rock Lee stood proudly in the middle of the small crater produced Naruto's attack, slightly battered but essentially intact. _Naruto was one step ahead of me. I need to close back in again, or he will use his clones to keep me pinned in place while he hammers me with long-ranged attacks. Fighting him at a distance is too dangerous, especially since his clones are constructs so sacrificing several of them just to land a solid hit on me is a small price to pay._

_I have the speed to close in quickly, but Naruto is almost as fast as I am; at this distance he'll be able to get another wind jutus off before I get in range for a taijutsu attack. Luckily, while Naruto has been busy with the Hokage I have gotten a few tips from TenTen…_ Lee's hands blurred as he drew out shuriken and launched them at Naruto; while his accuracy with thrown weapons was a long way away from TenTen's, the sheer number of weapons Lee could send flying at Naruto with his incredible speed ensured that some of the weapons would be on target, and Lee's throws were a lot more powerful than TenTen's. As the boy machine-gunned shuriken at Naruto, he steadily advanced, hoping that by the barrage of weapons would be enough to occupy Naruto and leave him unable to stop Lee from closing back into melee range.

After a few seconds Lee discovered the flaw in his plan; instead of frantically dodging or blocking Lee's shuriken, Naruto was calmly working his way through another wind jutsu, and Lee was dismayed to note that none of his weapons seemed to be coming close to the boy. _I know my accuracy is below average, but with how many weapons I have thrown I would expect that several of the shuriken should have hit Naruto by now. Of course! TenTen-san told me he had a wind jutsu that can deflect ranged attacks; he must be using it to stop me!_

Before Lee could alter his tactics, Naruto finished his jutsu, and launched several blasts of compressed air at Lee. To the green-clad boy's dismay, Naruto had spaced his attacks out well enough that it would be almost impossible to dodge around or between them, especially when Lee only had a seconds to act. _There is no way I could move far enough to the side to get clear, and dodging between the attacks would take incredible timing. Wait, all the attacks are at ground level; I can jump over them._ Lee did not waste a moment before turning thought into action, launching himself into the air and planning his jump in a long arc that would end less than a meter away from Naruto's current position.

Moments later, Lee realized he had played right into Naruto's hands, as the boy gave a pleased grin and launched his next jutsu. "Futon: Gale Palm." A blast of hurricane-force wind slammed into Lee, turning his smooth towards Naruto jump into a wild, tumbling flight in the opposite direction. Lee slammed into to the ground at the opposite end of the training field, gaining an assortment of minor cuts, scrapes, and bruises from his rough landing.

"Heh, looks you better take those weights of yours off, Bushy Brows!" Naruto suggested to his friend, unaware that Lee had done so at the start of the fight. "I guess I'm not as rusty as I thought; I think you're gonna have to get serious if you want to win." _It figures Bushy Brows would be going easy on me; I asked him to right at the start of the match, and I guess he took me seriously when I was really just joking around._

While Naruto's intentions had been entirely friendly, his casual words cut his teammate to the quick. _I am taking this match seriously; am I so weak that Naruto thinks I must still be playing around instead of really trying to beat him? What was all my hard work for if after more than a year of training I still can't even match my teammates in skill? Have I failed? _Lee's fists clenched, and a determined scowl made its way onto the boy's face. _No, I won't give up here! Sorry Gai-sensei, but if I'm going to stay true to my ninja way, I'm afraid I'll have to use that technique…_

One second Lee was at the opposite end of the training field, and then Naruto blinked and Lee was suddenly right next to him, one hand on the ground supporting his body as he extended his foot in a devastating kick that slammed right into Naruto's chin. Naruto's head snapped back from the force of the blow, and blood flew out of Naruto's mouth as his teeth slammed together on top of a portion of his bottom lip and cut straight through the sensitive skin.

By the time Naruto realized what had happened, he was flying through the air and Lee had jumped into position right behind and below him, no doubt setting up a follow-up attack of some sort. _Not sure what Bushy Brows is up to, but if it hurts as much as that kick did then I don't think I wanna stick around to find out_. Naruto quickly created a shadow clone, which tossed him to the side and away from Lee, but before Naruto could dispel the clone Lee grabbed it and used it to propel himself back into his position beneath Naruto. Rather than attempt to use the same tactic again, Naruto performed a quick replacement with his clone, moving him safely away from Lee but placing the clone in imminent danger of receiving whatever attack Lee was planning. _Might as well leave the clone around for a bit so I can see what it is Bushy Brows is up to. The way he did that kick and jump, it's almost like the move Gai-sensei used on Yagura – but Gai-sensei said that move was dangerous, which is why he wouldn't teach it to me - so why does Lee know how to do it?_

Naruto landed smoothly, and then shot TenTen a grin and a quick V sign to let her know that he had escaped from Lee's attack before returning his attention to the clone's plight. Just as the boy suspected, the bandages on Lee's arms wrapped themselves around the clone just as had happened during Gai's part of the fight with Yagura, but instead of beating the crap out of his clone like Gai had Lee proceeded to grab and trapped clone and pile drive it head first into the ground. _Good thing I got away from Bushy Brows, 'cause that hit looks like it would've hurt!_

Lee let out a groan of pure frustration when the shadow clone dispersed and he realized Naruto had outmaneuvered him once again. The weakened boy was in no condition to dodge when Naruto launched another air bullet at him; the attack knocked Lee flying, and his subsequent impact with the ground sent lances of pain through every joint in his body. _If I can just hold out for a minute I'll recover from the side effects of using the Primary Lotus, but at this rate I'll have to open even more of my Inner Gates if I want to beat Naruto; he hasn't even tapped into the power of the Nine Tailed Fox yet._

Unfortunately for Lee, Naruto was not about to accommodate his plan, and moments after the air bullet's impact the jinchuriki slammed down of Lee, knocking the wind out of the battered genin. Lee felt something cold and sharp pressing against his throat, and a quick glance downward confirmed that Naruto had a kunai touching his throat. "Looks like I won, right Bushy Brows?" The younger boy asked with a friendly grin.

"Yes, you win Naruto-kun." Lee conceded reluctantly.

"Awesome." Naruto removed to kunai, and helped Lee get back up. "You nearly got me with that last move, it was pretty neat." Naruto swiped a hand across his chin to wipe away the blood dripping down from his split lip. "Glad I managed to get away before you got me with that finisher."

"You two got a little worked up, didn't you?" TenTen called out, making her way over to her teammates. "Towards the end that was getting a little intense for a sparring match, but I know how you two can get excited when it comes to training so I guess I should've expected it. You alright Naruto?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Naruto assured the girl. "How about you, Bushy Brows?"

_I am the one who lost and got beaten up, yet TenTen-san is more worried that Naruto-kun might have been hurt she is about me._ "I am fine, Naruto-kun." The spandex-clad boy let out a resigned sigh, and admitted. "I had hoped I might win our match, instead of losing it as badly as I did."

"What're you talking about, Bushy Brows?" Naruto stared at his usually upbeat friend, confused by Lee's lack of his normal exuberant and slightly disturbing cheer. "You did good in that match, and nearly had me beat with that finished move of yours; you might not have won, but you still did pretty good. The only reason I managed to pull off a win is because I know a lot about how you fight and what the best way to beat you is, and nobody else is gonna know that kind of stuff."

"Yeah, you did fine Lee." TenTen added, supporting both her friends. "It's not that you're bad, it's just that Naruto's unnaturally good." TenTen threw an across Naruto's shoulders and smiled at her friend. "The only way I can ever beat him in a sparring match is if he's not using any of his wind jutsus or drawing on the Fox's power, and even when I don't let him use two of his best tricks it's still a tough match I lose more often than not." TenTen smirked at Naruto and ran a hand through his hair. "It doesn't help that Naruto's too dumb to know when he's beat, and keeps the fights going until I get tired and give up just so I can take a break."

"Aw man, TenTen-chan, why can't you just admit that I win because I'm awesome?" Naruto whined. "Instead, you've always gotta say I win cause I'm too dumb to know when I'm beaten, or stuff like that."

"No, I think your ego gets inflated enough when you're talking to yourself, if I got in on the act there's no telling how ridiculously big-headed you'd end up being." TenTen smirked at Naruto and gave his shoulder a squeeze. "Someone's got to deflate that oversized ego of yours, and as your best friend it's practically my sacred duty to do it." _Of course, the goofball's actually pretty modest once you get past all the ridiculously over-the-top bragging he does when he's joking around._ Returning her attention to her other teammate, TenTen gave Lee a quick smile and said. "Anyway, don't think you're a bad ninja just because you can't beat Naruto; Konoha's future Hokage is supposed to be stronger than anybody else."

_I always hoped that with enough hard work I could surpass even a natural genius, and maybe I can, but – Naruto works just as hard as I do, and he has all the talent and natural ability that I lack. All this time, Naruto's growth inspired me to believe in my own dream, but what if it is not a matter of hard work producing results in his case? What if Naruto was just a natural genius who nobody acknowledged because he is a jinchuriki, and now his genius is reaching its full potential? If that's the case, then maybe my dream really is hopeless..._

"Hey, you alright Bushy Brows?" Naruto interrupted Lee's increasingly morbid train of thought. "You seem kinda quiet."

"Just thinking, Naruto-kun." Lee answered dismissively. _I suppose the Chunin Exams will answer my question well enough; even if I cannot defeat someone who is a natural genius and a genius of hard work like Naruto-kun, there will still be other opportunities to prove that I can fulfill my dream of becoming a brilliant shinobi._

"Oh, hey, I just remembered." Naruto suddenly announced. "The Old Man told me a couple things you guys need to know about who's gonna be in the Chunin Exams…"

* * *

The week before the Chunin Exams shot past Naruto in a confused blur of training broken up by near-constant speculation with TenTen and Lee about what exactly the exams would be like. All they knew for certain was that teams were required to enter as a group, which probably meant that at least part of the test was teamwork-based, and that the final round of the exam was a big individual tournament in front of the entire village and a bunch of visiting dignitaries. _Well, the teamwork part oughta be pretty easy; we've got a pretty good team, and TenTen-chan and I spent most of the last week getting our new jutsu down perfect, which oughta help us win any sort of team fight._

Going back to the Academy for the start of the Chunin Exam brought back some fond and not-so-fond memories for Naruto; on Lee's advice the team decided to show up on hour before the exam was due to start and take a bit of time to scope out the competition before the exam. Lee had also suggested trying to avoid attracting too much attention, but between Naruto's adventures in Kiri and his infamy as the Nine Tails jinchuriki the team had no chance of staying under the radar, so they had to come up with an alternate strategy. _Well, if we can't avoid being noticed, let's scare the crap out of the competition._

Luckily for Team Gai, an opportunity to do so presented itself soon enough, in the form a pair of older Konoha genin who were trying to keep the younger entrants from participating in the exam by blocking off the entrace. Team Gai strode up to the doors, and Naruto channeled a brief burst of the Fox's chakra before asking the guards in a deadly clam voice. "You guys sure you wanna get in my way?"

Almost everyone in the hallway except for Lee and TenTen flinched away when they felt the demonic chakra emanating from Naruto, and even the two genin guarding the doors seemed a little shaken. After a moment's consideration the two looked at each other, shrugged in unison, and then stepped aside. "We're just here to weed out the weaklings that wouldn't be able to handle the test anyway." One of them declared. "We don't want trouble with someone like you, Naruto."

"Damn right you don't." TenTen shot back, a confident smirk on her face as she strode past the two guardians. "If you'd stayed in our way you might've made Naruto angry, and you don't want to do that. You wouldn't like him when he's angry."

"Ah, by the way," Lee offered politely, "You should improve the genjutsu you placed over this corridor; I am terrible at genjutsu, and even I know that we are still on the second floor."

Lee's final comment set off a string of discontented muttering among the chunin hopefuls that had the fallen for the trick, mixed in with many worried comments about how the team that had scared the self-appointed guardians into submission and seen through their genjutsu was obviously far too strong for any of them to beat. "Looks like the plan worked." Naruto whispered to his teammates. "It sounds like right now everyone who saw us in that hallway is thinking they don't wanna mess with us."

"Let's hope so." TenTen grimaced and added. "From what you've told us, we've already got plenty of trouble to look forward to already without anyone else adding to it."

Just how much trouble Team Gai had to look forward to was proven a few moments later when the three genin were passing through a large open room that served as an indoor training area, and saw a trio of Suna ninja loitering in the area. Naruto instantly recognized Gaara from the Hokage's briefing, and the blond-haired girl and guy in a black outfit with face-paint on were presumably Gaara's teammates. As soon as Naruto entered the room Gaara fixed him with a stare of unnerving intensity. "You are Naruto Uzumaki?" Gaara asked in a flat, emotionless voice.

"Yeah, that's me." Naruto answered, mustering a confident grin. _Man, something about his guy just gives me the creeps; I can't quite put my finger on it, but something about him just feels kinda … off, like he's not quite normal. Can't be a jinchuriki thing, 'cause Yugito and Yagura weren't like that when I ran into them._ "You must be Gaara, right?"

"So you know of me as well." Gaara gave Naruto an appraising look. "Curious; I always thought I would somehow be able to recognize another jinchuriki, but if I didn't know your identity I would think you were just another ninja."

"Yeah, well, it's not like I go running around all over the place with a giant sign on top of my head telling everyone that I've got the Nine Tailed Fox sealed in me." Naruto answered, deciding that if he ought to make an effort to establish some sort of rapport with Gaara. _After all, if I wanna stop the Kazekage from killing him it'd probably help if I could get him to trust me a little bit._ "Anyway, these are friends, TenTen-chan and Rock Lee, though I just call him Bushy Brows most of the time."

"Friends?" Gaara asked, somehow managing to fill that single word with a mixture of confusion and utter disdain. "I thought a jinchuriki like you would know that relying on others is idiocy; people like us will always be hated and feared. Only by loving ourselves and destroying others can we truly validate our own existence; pursuing any other course is pointless." Gaara's eyes narrowed in a baleful glare. "If cannot even grasp such basic truths of the universe, then I'll be doing you a favor by killing you." _I thought this Naruto Uzumaki might be a kindred spirit when I first heard about him, but t__his fool is nothing like me, even if he is a jinchuriki like I am._

Naruto and his friends immediately tensed at the death threat, but before a fight could break out the girl on Gaara's team made an effort to calm her volatile teammate. "Gaara, please don't cause trouble before the exam even gets started, or they won't let us participate. Besides, with as many jonin as there are here any fight would get broken up within a minute or two."

"Don't tell me what to do." The boy snapped, fixing his teammate with a cold glare.

"I didn't – I wasn't trying to…" The girl stammered, taking a single step back from Gaara and holding up her hands in surrender. "I was just, Baki-sensei and father told us to wait until, um, that we shouldn't…" _Oh shit, on shit, oh shit! I didn't mean to piss him off!_

"Shut up Temari." Gaara ordered the girl; Temari wasted no time in complying. "I know what our orders are. Just don't get in my way, or I'll kill you."

"Hey! Don't talk to your sister like that!" The other boy shouted, grabbing Gaara by the front of his robes and giving him a rough shake.

In the blink of an eye sand shot out of Gaara's gourd and knocked his teammate away, then slowly began to wrap itself around the black-clad boy. "I've never thought of either one of you as my siblings." Gaara declared emotionlessly. "Especially you, Kankuro; you're a pathetic shinobi and a disgrace to our entire village." The sand wrapped over Kankuro's body began to compress, and Kankuro let out a pained grunt. "You're starting to annoy me, and I don't need you to finish this exam anyway."

_Man, is he gonna kill that guy?_ Naruto and his teammates watched the unfolding spectacle in horrified fascination. _From what they said they're not just teammates, those are his brother and sister, and he still treats them like crap and threatens to kill them for no reason! This Gaara – he's not just a little unbalanced, or even insane; he's completely, absolutely, one hundred percent fucking nuts! No wonder his dad's been trying to kill him!_

"Gaara, please…" Temari all but begged her brother. "I'm sure Kankuro's sorry for what he did, and I'm sorry too; I'm really sorry for what I said to you, so please, just let him go." When her pleas appeared to go unheard, the girl switched tactics "We can't take the Chunin Exam without a full team of three , and if we get disqualified then you'll never get a chance to–."

"Fine." Gaara cut his sister off, and the sand slowly released its grip on his brother. As soon as Kankuro was able to move and speak freely he offered a frightened apology to his brother, which did not seem to have the slightest impact upon Gaara.

Naruto and his teammates relaxed slightly as the prospect of immanent bloodshed faded away, only to be startled half to death when an all too familiar voice came from right behind the trio. "I know sibling rivalry is a normal thing, but that was going a little a overboard, don't you think Naruto-kun?"

_Dammit, how did she sneak up behind the three of us like that!_ Slowly, Naruto turned around and fixed the purple-clad woman behind him with a hateful glare. "I don't have anything to say to you."

"Now Naruto-kun, is that any way to greet a fellow jinchuriki?" Yugito smiled down at a furious boy, to all appearances quite amused by his rage. "Really, we have to work on your manners; you didn't write back after I sent you such a nice little letter, and you didn't even stop by to say hello when your Kage told you I was in town. It's just not polite to be that rude to an old friend."

"We're not friends, Kitty-chan." Naruto snarled, reusing the mocking nickname he had bestowed upon her during their battle last year. "You tried to kidnap me, and when that didn't work you beat me and TenTen-chan up, and then you nearly killed her in order to get away. What the hell makes you think I want to have anything to do with you after all the crap you pulled?"

"Now, now, let's not ruin our little reunion by re-hashing old arguments about who beat up and tried to kill or kidnap who…" Yugito shot the boy a friendly grin. "Why don't we focus on the good times instead, like when I bought you ramen?"

"Which you only did to make me like you so I'd wanna defect to Kumo." Naruto growled.

"There you go again, always putting the worse possible spin on things." Yugito sighed, and then frowned at Naruto. "By the way, if you've changed your mind about defecting the offer's still open, especially after everything you got up to in Kiri. Now, that really hurt my feelings; you say you'll never defect from Konoha and turned down my very generous offer to train you, but then just a couple months later you're running around in Kiri with the rebellion against the Fourth Mizukage." _Although considering Kiri's sudden shift in foreign policy after the rebellion it's pretty obvious he was still working for Konoha; by the time the Konoha alliance's next Chunin Exam comes around there will probably be Kiri genin participating in it._

"Naruto already said he doesn't want to talk to you, so get lost." TenTen took a step forward, then one to the side, placing herself partially between Yugito and Naruto and glaring at the Kumo jinchuriki. "By the way, I know there's no way I can manage it just yet, but one day I'm going to make you pay for what you did to him, bitch."

"I believe I should have the chance first, TenTen-san." Lee declared, fixing Yugito with a glare of his own and stepping up to the girl's side. "After all, she drugged me and Gai-sensei so we never even had a chance to participate in the battle; I should have the opportunity to fight her for the first time before you or Naruto-kun have a second chance. It is only fair."

Gaara had been watching the confrontation with vague interest ever since the new arrival identified herself as a jinchuriki, and between her affiliation with Kumo and Naruto's choice of insult Gaara was reasonably certain she was the host of the Two Tailed Cat. However, at the moment Gaara's was not paying attention to either of the two jinchuriki; instead, his attention was fixed upon the two other two Konoha genin, who had stepped protectively in front of Naruto. _Their eyes – they're just like Yashamaru's were that time. Why? Why are they wearing expressions like that for Uzumaki! WHY?!_

Temari and Kankuro both flinched away from their brother; they had learned all the warning signs that Gaara was on the verge of losing control, and right now the two siblings could practically feel the psychotic rage radiating off of Gaara. Neither one of them wanted to be anywhere close to their brother when he snapped and started killing whoever was most convenient. "Gaara, please calm down." Temari whispered to her brother "Do it as a favor for me – please?"

Gaara's gaze shifted to his siblings, and he contrasted their expressions of barely concealed terror with the looks on the faces of Naruto's teammates. "Why should I do you any favors, Temari?" Gaara's tone was even more frigid than normal. "You have no right to ask me for anything."

"Sorry." Temari hastily apologized, flinching away from her brother.

"We've wasted enough time here, let's go." Gaara turned his back on Naruto and his disgustingly loyal teammates, and headed onward to the examination area. His two siblings exchanged a glance filled with lingering terror mingled with relief that they had defused another one of Gaara's unpredictable fits of killing rage, and then followed their brother.

Yugito had been keeping an eye on the interplay between the sand siblings, and much like Gaara she found herself comparing the way the two young jinhcuriki's teammates acted around them. _Gaara's teammates are terrified of him, even though as siblings they ought to have naturally good teamwork. Meanwhile, Naruto's teammates are threatening me and trying to stare me down, even though they've only known him for a fraction of the time and aren't bound to him by family ties. I suppose that tells you all you really need to know about the two of them._ "Naruto-kun, be careful around Gaara; if you give him half a chance he'll kill you."

"Hey, I handled you, so I think I can take of myself against." Naruto snapped at the Kumo jonin.

"I wasn't trying to kill you." Yugito shot back. "You have to hold back a lot when your goal is to capture someone instead of trying to kill them; I couldn't use any jutsus that even had a slight chance of killing you." _Plus I got a little too caught up in the fun of the chase; I thought I could afford to play around with him for a bit and see how good he was, and it cost me a fight I should've won._

"Why do you care how Naruto does against Gaara anyway?" TenTen demanded. "You know Naruto's not going to switch over to Kumo no matter what kind of bribes you try to offer, so why should you give a shit whether he beats another jinchuriki?"

"I give a shit because inchuriki like Gaara and the Fourth Mizukage give ones like Naruto and me a bad name." Yugtio snapped at the girl. A moment later, Yugito seemed calm once more and the Kumo jonin gave a careless shrug. "All things considered, I'd rather have the non-psychotic jinchuriki be the one that comes out on top in the Exams. The more people see of sane jinchuriki, and the less they see of the crazy ones, the better things are for all of us." _Plus, whatever those Akatsuki bastards are up to with their interest in jinchuriki, I have a feeling we'll have an easier time handling it if people see Naruto as an example of the average jinchuriki than if they use Gaara to judge the rest of us. Shinobi don't have many chances to really capture the public eye on a mass scale, so Konoha's Chunin Exam tournament is an opportunity that can't go to waste._

"Yugito-san." Lee asked, maintaining a slightly more respectful tone with the Kumo jonin than his teammates' open contempt. "According to what Naruto-kun told us, you are here to watch over your genin team in our exam. If that is the case, then might I ask where your team is?"

"Well, technically they're Killer Bee's team, I'm just borrowing them for the moment because I don't have a team and Killer Bee would cause a diplomatic incident within five minutes of walking through gates." Yugito responded absently, most of her mind still occupied with the matter of Gaara and Naruto. "The team has already gone into the room where they're holding the exam, and jonin-senseis aren't allowed past the front door to keep them from trying to help their team during the test."

"Well, why are you here if they're not your team, Kitty-chan?" TenTen asked, adopting Naruto's contemptuous nickname for the Kumo jinchuriki with a vindictive smirk.

_Right, note to self: if the rest of my plan works out, I need to do something about that nickname before it starts spreading around. Kitty-chan sounds like the sort of ridiculous name a cutesy twelve year old civilian girl would come up with for herself, and is not a proper nickname for deadly, powerful, and experienced kunoichi with a demonic entity sealed inside of her._ _Then again, the fact that it's such an undignified and completely unsuitable nickname is probably why Naruto likes it so much in the first place; he really can hold a grudge. Best to keep quiet about it and pretend it doesn't bother me; if I complain or get annoyed it would only encourage him to keep calling me that_. "I'm here to spy on Naruto and Gaara's performance in the exams, of course." Yugito answered TenTen's question with blunt honesty.

"Ha!" Naruto leveled an accusing finger at Yugito, a triumphant expression on his face. "You've admitted that you're up to no good! I knew it! Once the Hokage hears about this he's gonna have you tossed out on your ass, Kitty-chan!"

"Don't be ridiculous." Yugito dismissed the boy's declaration of victory. "Your Hokage is far too intelligent not to have figured out my reason for being here by now; I expect he understood within moments of receiving Raikage-sama's request to allow me to bring a genin team to your exam. Considering how public the final round tournament is, there is absolutely no way Konoha could ever keep Kumo's spies, or anyone else's for that matter, from watching the most important part of the exams anyway; we've been spying on your tournament for as long as you've been holding it. One of the main purposes of the Chunin Exam is to attract merchants and other potential clients, and plenty of merchants are perfectly willing to provide us with information about the exams in exchange for a modest fee. Ultimately, the Hokage would much rather have a single known spy from Kumo in Konoha than half a dozen unknown ones."

"Well, if it's that easy to get spies into the exams then why go to all the trouble of sending a team into the exams to get a spy inside Konoha?" Naruto countered.

"Why bother getting information from middlemen if I don't have to?" Yugito smirked and added. "Besides, most spies have to be a little more unobtrusive, and wouldn't have been around for that little exchange between you and Gaara a couple minutes ago. With this arrangement, I can get information my information directly and with less trouble, while your Hokage's people can keep an eye on me and make sure I don't get the sort of information they want kept secret. Everyone wins."

"Aren't spies supposed to be a bit more secretive?" TenTen was still rather skeptical of Yugito's explanation for her presence in Konoha. "I mean, doesn't going around telling people that you're a spy kind of defeat the entire purpose of being a spy?"

"Everyone important already knows I'm spying on the Exams anyway, so why bother maintaining a pretence that nobody will believe anyway when it doesn't benefit me or anybody else to pretend I'm not spying on you?" Yugito smirked at TenTen and added. "Plus, your boyfriend's helpless frustration at his inability to remove me from Konoha, despite the fact that I've openly confessed my nefarious reasons for being here, amuses me."

"Y'know, I really don't like you." Naruto grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring petulantly at the Kumo ninja.

"So you say, and yet, you've spent a good fifteen minutes reminiscing and chatting with me." Yugito smirked at the boy, and asked. "What's next? Are you going to offer me a bowl of ramen while insisting that it's not because you like me or anything, you just had some left over?"

"Don't you have anything better to do than annoy the crap out of me?" Naruto snapped at the woman.

Yugito considered the question for a moment then gave a shrug and cheerfully responded. "Nope. I need to wait around for my team to get through the exam, but none of the other jonin are terribly eager to make small talk with the jinchuriki spy from a village that has a very rocky relationship with most of the other villages participating here. I can't imagine why."

"Guess what Kitty-chan." Naruto answered spitefully. "We don't wanna talk to you either." Naruto turned his back on the woman and marched off, doing his best to ignore the woman despite her talent for getting on his nerves.

After the trio of genin were safely out of the Kumo jinchuriki's earshot, Lee spoke up. "While I will not deny that it was extremely satisfying on a personal level, maybe we should not have been quite so rude to Yugito-san. After all, she is quite powerful, and she does possess knowledge that could be quite useful to Naruto-kun if she could be persuaded to part with it."

"Yeah, except we could never trust any information we got out of her." TenTen countered, glowering over her shoulder in Yugito's general direction.

"I don't know…" Naruto muttered speculatively. "I think she'd be honest if she actually gave me any sort of training, it's just that she's not gonna give that training away. I think that, in a weird sort of way, we can trust Yugito; we can trust her to do whatever it is that she thinks is best for Kumo. I mean, she's even more loyal to Kumo than I am to Konoha, and that means that, when you think about it, she's really pretty predictable." The boy shrugged and added. "When she was trying to get me to defect, I could tell she wasn't just talking out of her ass about how great Kumo was; she really believes that her home village is that great, and that I would've been happier if I'd grown up there. I guess what I'm saying is, even if I don't like her that much 'cause of some of things she's done, I can at least understand her, 'cause she just did what she thinks is the right thing, and that makes her a lot easier to deal with than someone like Gaara who's just nuts." The boy paused a moment, and then added. "She still annoys the crap outta me though, acting like we're friends when I'm still really pissed at her for what she did to TenTen-chan."

"Maybe she was right about you and Kumo." TenTen frowned down at the floor. "You did have a lot of trouble growing up here, and even if things have slowly been getting better there are still a lot of people who resent you just for being a jinchuriki." _At least Lee and I aren't having as many problems with the villagers and our peers as we used to; after a couple months things have calmed down a little bit since it's not on people's mid as much as it was at first. I'm just glad I managed to convince Lee not to tell Naruto about any of the problems we had, because I just know Naruto would've done something impulsive and idiotically noble like start trouble with some of the people giving us a hard time if he had found out about it._

"Maybe." Naruto agreed with a shrug. "But if I'd grown up in Kumo I never would've met you guys, or Gai-sensei, or the Old Man, or Kakashi, or Kurenai-san, or the people at Ichiraku Ramen, or … well, you get the idea. Even if there are a lot of assholes here, Konoha's still my home, and having to deal with some jerks is a small price if I get to have awesome friends as well. Even if everyone in Kumo treated me with all the respect I don't get from Konoha, it would've sucked 'cause I never would've gotten a chance to meet you, TenTen-chan."

"Yeah, Konoha wouldn't be the same without you around either." TenTen confessed, wrapping an arm around Naruto's shoulders and tugging him a little bit closer to her. After spending a few moments smiling fondly at her friend, TenTen turned to Lee and added. "Besides, without Naruto around there's no telling who we would've gotten as the third member of our team, right Lee?"

"Very true, TenTen-san; Naruto-kun's fires of youthfulness make him a far better teammate than anyone else I can imagine." With a shudder, Lee added. "Without Naruto-kun we might have found ourselves on a team with someone cold and dispassionate like Neji Hyuuga, or a teammate who we could not get along with like Maeko Kimura."

"Plus," TenTen added in a whisper intended for Naruto's ears alone. "If you weren't here I might be stuck with nobody else to help keep me from succumbing to Gai-sensei's insanity. Whoever replaced you might not have been strong enough to hold out against our sensei's craziness, and if I was surrounded by teammates who kept going on and on about the power of youth I would've snapped eventually."

"Yeah, I mean, Gai-sense is pretty cool and all, but I don't wanna end up like him." Naruto whispered back. With a glance back at his third teammate, Naruto raised his voice so that Lee would be included in the conversation. "Hey guys, between the crazy jinchuriki from Suna, the sneaky one from Kumo, and all the people from Konoha and all the other villages that're gonna be doing their best to try and beat us, this Chunin Exam looks like it's gonna be pretty interesting, doesn't it?

"Yes, it does Naruto-kun." Lee answered, clenching his fists in determination as he announced. "However, so long as we remain true to Gai-sensei's teachings and continue onward with all of our youthful enthusiasm and unbending determination to succeed, I am certain that we will triumph!"

"Right… I guess it will be interesting" TenTen did not share her teammates' enthusiasm for all the complications that were already showing up in an exam that had a long-established reputation for being incredibly difficult, and Naruto's words had reminded her of an ancient curse that was usually reserved for one's greatest enemies.

May you live in interesting times.

* * *

**A/N:** The beginning of the chapter reminds me of my odd little pet theory that Shizune deliberately traps Tsunade in the office with piles of unnecessary paperwork to keep Tsunade from going out to gamble and/or get drunk. Also, for anyone who didn't get the horrible pun that is the name of Team 7's Naruto replacement, the name Akane Shatsu essentially means "Red Shirt."


	14. The Exam Begins

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Naruto

* * *

"Man, I knew there were gonna be a lotta people here for the exam, but this is nuts!" Naruto whispered to his teammates, staring in shock at the horde of chunin hopefuls crammed into the small room. "There's gotta be, like a fifty different teams here! We're gonna have our work cut out for us, that's for sure."

"Good." Lee gave a brilliant smile worthy of Gai. "I would not want the Chunin Exams to be too easy, or we would not properly value our promotions. The very act of struggling to move upwards through the ranks is itself a form of training."

"Yeah, it should be great training as long as we survive the exam." Tenten grumbled.

"Yeah, you never know what might happen in a test like this." A dark-skinned boy who seemed to be about their age had apparently overheard Team Gai's conversation. "Tests like this are always tricky; you start of talking to some guy and next thing you know you've said the wrong thing and pissed him off, and then he tries to kill you, and when you beat him it pisses off all his friends and family, and then all your friends get angry, and next thing you know you've gone and set off the Fourth Great Shinobi World War." The boy frowned in thought for a moment and then said. "Y'know, on second thought I probably shouldn't be talking to you, I don't want people to blame me for starting a war."

_Right, this guy's pretty weird. Wait a minute! He's from Kumo, so he must be one of Yugito's genin_. Naruto was at a loss for words, and judging by their silence and facial expression of dull shock and confusion he guessed his teammates were in a similar state.

"Omoi!" A dark-skinned redheaded girl, one of his teammates according to her headband, snapped at the boy. "Why do you always have to go around over-thinking things?"

"Hey, you know what kind of trouble we can get into when we don't think things through, Karui." Omoi responded placidly. "Bee-sensei is always causing problem because he doesn't think things through before he jumps right in; that's why they sent us here with Yugito-taichou instead of letting our sensei come along."

"Well, maybe you're right about that, but there is a difference between reasonably planning things through and what you do, Omoi." The third member of their group, a fair-skinned blond girl whose chest seemed unusually well-developed for a girl of her age, grimaced at her teammates, then turned to Team Gai and requested in a tone of weary resignation. "Just try to ignore my teammates, they're insane. I'm Samui, nice to meet you."

"I'm Naruto Uuzumaki," The jinchuriki introduced himself, then turned to his teammates. "And this is Tenten-chan and Bushy – um, Rock Lee. The other two on your team are Omoi and Karui, right?"

"Correct." The only sane member of the Kumo genin team answered. "Your introduction was not necessary though; Yugito-taichou briefed us on you and Gaara of Suna once we were selected for this mission."

"Yeah, I kinda figured she'd have told you guys something about me; I did kinda kick her ass once." Naruto informed the Kumo genin.

"That's not what Yugito-taichou said." Omoi countered, reaching into his pouch of ninja tools and producing a lollipop, which he promptly stuck into his mouth. "She told us that she was the better fighter, but you and one of your teammates held her off long enough to cause problems, and your jinchuriki skills were so utterly non-existent that she was worried you would end up losing control if the fight went on any longer."

"Well, yeah, that is how she would tell it." Naruto shot back. "'Cause she doesn't wanna admit that she lost." Naruto's next statement was significantly louder, and his voice carried easily across most of the room. "I mean, think about it; how embarrassing would it be for your jonin captain to admit that I kicked her ass and sent her running away scared?"

Tenten and Lee were both frowning at their teammate in confusion, but worried muttering and fearful glances many of the competitors sent in Naruto's direction made it fairly simple to figure out what the boy had been up to. _Naruto-kun is still trying to intimidate the competition, and it would appear he is having some success_. Eager to help out his teammate, Lee added in an equally loud voice. "I suppose it should be no surprise, Gai-sensei always says that no ordinary ninja could hope to defeat a jinchuriki like Naruto."

"Not the most subtle strategy." Samui commented, a knowing smile on her face. "But I suppose it is effective. Most people would rather avoid a fight with a known jinchuriki unless they have some kind of advantage to make up the difference. My team certainly doesn't plan to get in your way, we've seen what jinchuriki can do. In fact, we might be able to help each other out during the exams."

"I think we can take care of ourselves, thanks." Tenten answered coolly. _Having allies in the Exam could help, and it's not unheard of for different teams to work together in order to get past the early rounds, but there's no way in hell I'm going to trust anybody working with Yugito._

"What, do you think you're too good for us?" Karui snapped, glaring at the other girl.

"Personally, I'm not surprised you turned us down." Omoi gave a careless shrug. "After your history with Yugito-taichou it makes sense, and at least you weren't rude about it like Gaara was; he looks like he needs to relax and find a nice girl with big boobs to help him unwind a bit before he goes completely nuts." Omoi gave his well-endowed teammate a speculative look and then suggested. "Maybe you should've tried that instead of offering to help him get through exams, Samui. I don't think either of the jinchuriki are going to have trouble with the actual tests, and Gaara seems to hate everyone while Naruto just hates Yugito-taichou, but they're still both guys, so a girl with big boobs like yours could probably get them to along with working alongside our team. Of course, if we went with that plan then the two of you might end up falling in love and having sex, and then you'd get yourself pregnant and you'd probably expect me to help take care of the baby since getting romantically involved with a jinchuriki was my idea in the first place, and then I wouldn't be able to sleep at night because the baby would constantly be crying and I'd have to get up and change the diapers and stuff like that, so that's probably not the best plan anyway, because i don't want to end up changing daipers."

Once Omoi had finished laying out rather extensive scenario, silence reigned over the two teams until Samui announced. "I'm not going to dignify that with a response." Samui returned her attention to Naruto and his teammates. "Omoi did make a valid point before he went off on his strange tangent though; you have no reason to trust Kumo at the moment, so I can understand your decision. For what it's worth, you have our word that we will not do anything to impede your progress through the exams, and if you should change your mind the offer remains open."

"Yeah, don't expect us to come begging for help anytime soon." Naruto muttered. _Aside from the fact that they're from Kumo they don't seem so bad; sure, they're a little weird, but then I'm on a team with two guys who wear green spandex and go on and on about the Power of Youth, so I'm used to weird. Of course, I thought Yugito was pretty nice right up to the moment when she tried to beat me up and kidnap me…_

The trio of Kumo ninjas drifted off into the crowd, drawing quite a few glares from the rest of the assembled genin, while Naruto and his teammates stayed near the entrance and took a few moments to scope out the competition. "Geez, I can't believe so many of the rookies from this year are in the exams." Naruto pointed at Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma's teams to bring them to the attention of his companions. "I mean, Gai-sensei had us training for an entire year to get ready for this exam, and they think they're ready when they're practically fresh outta the Academy?" Naruto frowned in thought for a moment, and then amended. "Then again, from what I saw of Kurenai-san's team they're pretty good for their age, and it probably helps that so many of them are clan kids, so they've got all kinds of secret family jutsu or kekkei genkai to give them an edge over normal ninjas."

"Those things do give them an advantage over teams like ours that don't have anybody from a major ninja clan." Tenten's gaze shifted to Naruto, and she smiled. "Then again, you did take down this year's top rookie with one hit, so I'm not too worried. Sure, they've got some tricks that we don't, but jutsu and kekkei genkai are just tools; what matters is the skill of the ninja using them, and I know we've got them beat when it comes to skill, experience, and determination." Tenten went back to studying the room, and the girl frowned when she noticed that Neji Hyuuga seemed to be moving towards them. _I wonder what he's up to?_

"Family jutsu and kekkei genkai are worthless without hard work to back them up." Lee agreed, taking advantage of the opportunity to preach the gospel of Gai. "Even the advantages Naruto-kun enjoys by virtue of being a jinchuriki would be worthless if he was not willing to work hard to develop his skills to the highest possible level. That is why even a ninja with no natural talents can defeat a gifted genius if he is simply willing to work hard enough."

By the time Lee had finished his latest declaration about the virtues of hard work, Neji was close enough to overhear the enthusiastic young genin. "Foolishness." Neji snapped, fixing Lee with an annoyed glare. "Some shinobi are better than others, it is a simple fact. There are geniuses, and then there are losers."

"I disagree, hard work and determination are more important than natural ability." Lee responded calmly. "Perhaps we will have the opportunity to settle the matter in the course of the Chunin Exam." _If I could surpass Neji Hyuuga it would prove that I my goal to become a brilliant ninja even though I only use taijutsu is achievable. Even though I can never surpass Naruto-kun thanks to his combination of hard work and genius, I can defeat someone like Neji who is merely a genius._

"We shall see." Neji turned his back on Lee and fixed his attention on Naruto. "Uzumaki-san, I believe it would be prudent for our teams to collaborate in order to ensure that we both reach the final round; if the two of us work together then there is no opponent who could stand in our way." _I don't need any help to get through the Chunin Exams, and I doubt Naruto does either, but we do both have losers on our team who might drag us down. I want to beat Naruto in the tournament, with all of Konoha and the main family watching, and that means we both have to make it to the final round of the exams._

"Well, give us a minute to talk it over, alright Neji?" Naruto requested in a polite but carefully neutral tone. The Hyuuga gave a sharp nod and moved far enough away to give the team a bit of privacy for their discussion. "So, what do you guys think?" Naruto asked with a shrug. "I mean, Neji was the best guy in our class, and he's got some pretty neat abilities so he probably could do a lot to help us out, so I guess working with him would give us an edge..."

"And unlike the team from Kumo we can probably trust Neji." Tenten added. "He's not the type to stab us in the back for no good reason, and even if he did the worst he would do is make us fail the exam instead of whatever nasty plan Kumo has up its sleeve. Also, while Maeko would go along with betraying us, Masaru is way too much a straight arrow to deliberately plan to backstab an ally. Considering the fact that we have another jinchuriki out to kill us, plus whatever Yugito's team is up to, it might be a good idea to have a bit of backup just in case things go wrong."

"I agree; there is much to gain and little to lose from co-operation with Neji-san's team." The last member of trio declared. "They are strong enough that they can help us, but at the same time I believe that our hard work and the power of our youthfulness will allow us to defeat them if they should have dishonorable intentions." The spandex clad boy frowned in thought, and then amended. "However, we should be careful not to reveal the full extent of our abilities to Neji-san's team; even if they are allies now and remain true to that alliance, we will face them in battle before the exam ends."

"Yeah, well, with the six of us working together we probably won't run into anyone we're gonna need to go all-out against anyway." Naruto grinned at his friends. "I mean, the three of us are plenty awesome just by ourselves, Neji was the best student in our year, and Masaru's pretty good too. We've got five pretty badass ninjas on our team, so I don't think we're gonna have too much trouble."

"You forgot to include Maeko-san" Lee added helpfully.

"Like Naruto said, there would be five good ninjas on our combined teams." Tenten gave a vindictive smirk in Maeko's general direction. "She's been a total bitch ever since the fact that Naruto was a jinchuriki came out."

"Hey, be fair Tenten-chan." Naruto chided his best friend. "Maeko was like that long before she found out about the Fox; she doesn't get along with anybody, so I don't think the fact that I'm a jinchuriki has anything to do with her being so nasty." The boy shot Tenten a grin. With a decision reached, Naruto turned about and quickly tracked down Neji. "Hey, Neji, we talked it over, and we've decided we're gonna work with your team."

"Good." Neji fixed Naruto with a gaze of unnerving intensity. "It would be unfortunate if a ninja of your talents were held back by the failures of his teammates."

"My friends don't hold me back." Naruto's fists clenched at his sides, and it was only through an effort of sheer willpower that the boy was able to keep his face from betraying how angry Neji's words had made him. "Lee and Tenten-chan are good ninjas too, and there are a lot of things both of them can do better than me."

"Believe what you wish." Neji answered, a hint of disdain in his voice. "However, even you must acknowledge that you possess an inherent advantage over both your teammates; your skills exceed theirs, and as a jinchuriki you have abilities and chakra reserves that far exceed those of your teammates. A team is only as strong as its weakest member, and as long as you are on a team with inferior ninjas they will drag you down to their level."

"I don't believe that; Bushy Brows and Tenten-chan do a lot to help me, even if I am stronger than either one of them in an all-out fight." Naruto fixed the Hyuuga with a glare. "And if you want our teams to work together, I don't wanna hear you bad-mouthing Bushy Brows and Tenten-chan again, 'cause if you do I'm gonna kick your ass."

"I see." Neji kept his voice carefully neutral as he responded. "If it is a requirement to maintain our alliance, then I will refrain from attempting to explain the harsh realities of the ninja world to you. In time, you will come to understand that some shinobi are destined for greatness," Neji nodded in Naruto's direction, "and others are doomed to be failures." Neji's gaze shifted to Lee, and then Maeko, who immediately glared back at him in response. "No amount of hard work can alter the indisputable fact that some ninja have natural advantages of intelligence, physical abilites, chakra capacity, or powerful kekkei genkai, while others have none of these things."

Naruto's mind shot back the conversation about bloodlines and other advantages some of ninja in the Chunin Exam had over his team, and he repeated Tenten's conclusion. "All those things are nice, but they're just tools; it's how you use all your advantages that makes a ninja great. Even a ninja with no natural advantages can beat a great one if the one without all the fancy tricks just does a better job of fighting."

"The mark of a true genius is the ability to excel even when facing conditions that place them at a natural disadvantage." Neji countered. "I would say that a ninja who succeeds despite being average in most areas must possess exemplary abilities."

Before the philosophical discussion between the genin could escalate any further, the doors to the re-purposed classroom opened with a bang, and a group of shinobi led by a large, heavily scarred man entered. "Alright, pipe down brats!" The man's shout did an admirable job of silencing the room full of enthusiastic chunin hopefuls, and within moments the room was perfectly silent as everyone starred at the new arrival. "Right then, I am special jonin Morino Ibiki, and I'll be the proctor for the first stage of the Chunin Exams. We'll be assigning seats at random to keep people from sitting next to their friends and teammates; once everyone is in their assigned seat we'll pass out the tests."

"We're taking a written test?" Naruto groaned. "Aw crap." _Geez, no wonder the guy in charage of Konoha's Torture Division is running this part of the exam…_

* * *

Naruto settled into his assigned seat, more than a little terrified by the prospect of facing a test of his academic abilities. _I thought I was done with all that boring crap after I got out of the Academy; sure, I can understand it a bit better thanks to Tenten-chan and Bushy Brows and Gai-sensei and Kakashi explaining stuff I didn't really understand while I was there, but most of what I learned there is still boring crap that I don't need to be a ninja, so I kinda forgot about it._

To make matter worse, Ibiki had just informed the prospective chunin that their scores would be calculated by teams, so if Naruto screwed up on the exam he would end up not only ruining his prospects of making chunin, he would take Lee and Tenten down with him. The only thing the boy could hope for was that the marginal improvements in his academic ability that came as a result of the help he had received from his teammates and senseis, as well as his own bits of studying such as his search through the First Hokage's writings, had improved his academics to the point where he could manage to squeeze out a passing grade on the test. With any luck, Tenten and Lee would be able to bring in enough points for the team to get to the next stage of the Chunin Exam.

With his teammates on his mind, Naruto looked around the room in an effort to figure out where both of them wound up sitting. After a few moments of searching he located the two, seated not too far from each other, but on the other side of the classroom from him. While he was looking for his friends Naruto also discovered that, despite the random seating assignments, which were clearly intended to keep teammates and close friends away from each other, the red dress and long pink hair of one of his neighbors was quite familiar. "Oh, hey Sakura-san! You think you're gonna be able to handle this test?"

"Oh, hello Naruto-san." Sakura gave the boy a vaguely friendly smile. "Yes, I expect I should be able to do quite well on the test; I had the best academic marks of anyone in our year, even better than Sasuke-kun's." Sakura leaned in conspiratorially and whispered. "Some of the other girls were worried that doing better than Sasuke-kun at anything would make him dislike them, but it doesn't seem to have caused me any problems, and I even managed to get on his team without deliberately setting myself up to be the dead last like Akane did."

"Eh? What'd she do that for?" Naruto had hated being the dead last in his own class, and couldn't imagine anybody trying to become the worst student in the class on purpose.

"The dead last and the rookie of the year always end up on the same squad to keep things balanced, remember?" Sakura smirked at the blond, then cast a quick look back at her teammates. "So, the only way to be absolutely certain she would end up on Sasuke-kun's team…"

"Oh, well I guess that makes sense then." Naruto conceded with a shrug. "I mean, once you're out of the Academy what grades you got there don't matter all that much, but you're stuck with your teammates forever..." Naruto chuckled and added. "Hokage-sama's top two advisers are his old genin squadmates, so who you end up on a team with really is pretty important. If I had to get crappy grades to be sure that I'd end up on my team with Tenten-chan and Bushy Brows I would've done it, so I guess I can understand why someone else would screw up their grades to end up on the team they wanted."

In lieu of responding to his statement Sakura waved her hand in a quick shushing motion, and Naruto noticed that Ibiki was getting to an important part of the rules for the exam. _Just two points off for cheating? That's weird, they usually flunk you and kick you out of classroom as soon as they catch you cheating, and you'd think if anything the rule would be even harsher for the Chunin Exam_. Naruto chuckled as he remembered the stern but friendly warning Iruka had given him shortly after the boy had struck up his friendship with Tenten. Aware of Naruto's lackluster academic skills, Iruka took the liberty of warning Naruto of what kind of punishment he and Tenten would face if Iruka caught the girl going a bit too far to help her new best friend.

A couple minutes later the tests had been passed out, and Naruto found himself struggling against the urge to fly into a terrified state of panic. "_Decode the following block of text using the cipher key provided below" What the hell? I don't understand this crap; it's way more complicated than anything we ever covered at the Academy! OK, I'll just skip that one; it's just one question so there's no reason to panic. There are nine other questions left, and I'm sure none of the other questions will be nearly that hard. _Naruto quickly looked over the rest of the questions on the exam. _Aw crap, Tenten-chan and Bushy Brows are gonna kill me._

With no other options available to him, Naruto spent the next fifteen minutes going back over each question, and began studying them in detail, hoping for a sudden flash of insight that would allow him to come up with at least one or two answers so he wouldn't completely doom his team. _"Calculate the flight arc of a shuriken launched from seven meters away from your opponent, assuming that it is targeted for the opponent's center of mass, and explain all other options available in this scenario. Show your work." Geez, that's complicated. And what's the deal with question ten anyway? How do they expect us to know any of this crap - Hey! Wait a minute! I do know this! Tenten-chan was always going on about calculating flight paths for all the weapons she throws, so if I can just remember what the heck she did- yeah, I got this. And question #7, didn't the First Hokage's stuff have something about how those jutsu work? Yeah, yeah! I can answer that one too! _After taking a few moments to make sure of himself, Naruto quickly scribbled down answers to the two questions.

_Alright, it's not perfect, but at least I don't have to worry about getting us flunked out of the exam because I didn't get anything right. It would be nice if I could get the rest of the questions answered, but I don't see any way to do that unless I cheat, and with all the people watching I'd definitely get caught, and then I'd lose the two points I just got._ Naruto blinked as a sudden thought occurred to him. _Wait a minute, it's only two points off each time I get caught…_ A mischievous grin made its way onto the former prankster's face. _Hehe; that gives me a very interesting idea…_

Tenten let out a sigh of relief when she saw that Naruto had finally managed to answer a few of the questions, ensuring his team's survival into the next round of the exam. Tenten herself had only managed to get one of the answers on her own, but a bit of creative work with chakra threads and a few reflective surfaces had gotten her the other eight answers without getting caught by any of the chunin proctors. Luckily for Team Gai, Lee was close enough that she was able to get his attention by shifting her mirrors to shine some light into his eyes, and then pass her answers on to him. She had tried to find a way to do the same for Naruto, but he was too far away for Tenten to pass the answers along without being far too obvious about it and getting them both caught in the process.

Tenten had considered trying to get their erstwhile allies in Neji's team to help Naruto, but Maeko was the only one in a close enough position to communicate with the boy, and Tenten was not about to pin her hopes on the perpetually spiteful girl. _If Naruto hadn't managed on his own I probably would've had to try and help him, even if it would've had a high chance of getting us caught cheating. Better to risk almost certainly getting tossed out of the exam than do nothing and fail it for sure. I guess I should have more faith in Naruto; there's no way he ever would have let himself fail. It's funny, even though I know that in most ways he's a lot stronger than me, I still keep wanting to help and protect him._ Tenten smiled fondly at her friend on the other side of the room._ Silly little goofball._

Tenten was not the only girl whose thoughts were lingering upon the blond jinchuriki; after she had finished the first nine questions on the exam Sakura had nothing else to occupy her mind, and so before the long she was studying her blond neighbor. _From what Kakashi-sensei and some of the other genin say Naruto-san is supposed to be a really powerful elite ninja just like Sasuke-kun, but the two of them are so completely different from each other. Naruto-san is not amazingly hot and handsome like Sasuke-kun is, although I suppose Naruto-san does have a certain boyish cuteness to him. He's obviously a better ninja than Sasuke-kun is too, although that's mostly just because he has more experience so Sasuke-kun will definitely catch up with him sooner or later. They've both had so much suffering in their lives; Sasuke lost his family, and Naruto-san has to bear the burden of being a jinchuriki, but they've reacted to it completely differently. Sasuke-kun keeps himself distant from other to hide his own pain, which is part of what makes him so cool, but Naruto-san is such an open, friendly person, even though in his own he has suffered as much as Sasuke-kun…_

_Why am I thinking so much about him anyway? _Sakura flushed slightly, and deliberately turned her gaze away from Naruto. _It's probably just because I'm bored waiting for the rest of the test time to run out; once I finished answering all the questions I didn't have anything better to do than start looking at and thinking about the cute boy sitting next to me. It's not like anything would ever happen, I know that Sasuke-kun is the one true love of my life; I won't deny that Naruto-san has his good points, and there's no harm in acknowledging that because I'm definitely not interested in him that way. A couple of the girls in my year developed crushes on Naruto after the news about the Fox came out, so I suppose he is attractive. Of course, he's more cute and funny instead of being hot and awesome like Sasuke-kun, but I'm mature enough to admit that Naruto-san is has some attractive qualities without it diminishing my loyalty to Sasuke-kun. Besides there's no harm in being a intrigued by him as long as I don't take a romantic interest._

Now firmly convinced that there was no harm in being a little curious about the blond jinchuriki, Sakura began openly studying the boy. _It's funny, you would think a jinchuriki would be bigger and scarier; who would think mom and dad would be so scared of a boy like him? He's so short... both his teammates tower over him, and even I'm taller than he is, and I graduated a year after him. He doesn't look like a scary moster, just a kind of goofy boy…_ The boy finally seemed to become aware of her interest in him, and he turned his head and shot the girl a friendly smile, which Sakura hesitantly returned.

Then he blatantly reached across the desk and swiped her exam paper.

"Naruto-san! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" The pinkette hissed, too shocked by the boy's actions to even attempt to recover her purloined test.

"Oh, I'm cheating." Naruto answered with a cheerful smile, not even trying to keep his voice down. "Don't worry Sakura-san, I'll give your test back in a bit once I'm done with it, I just need to finish copying your answers first."

"Wha - but - you…" Sakura sputtered indignantly, far too flustered by Naruto's blunt confession to formulate a coherent response. After several seconds of struggling, the girl finally managed. "You - you admit you're cheating?"

"Yeah." Naruto answered conversationally. "But it's alright, I'm only cheating once."

Sakura was just about to launch into a tirade about how cheating once was more than enough to get him into trouble when the full import of his words sank in. _It's only two points off for each time you get caught cheating, so no matter how blatantly Naruto cheats, by the rules they can only take off two points for each time he cheats. He got the answers to all of the questions just by stealing my test once, so he more than made up the two points he lost in the process..._

Ibiki also seemed to have followed Naruto's line of reasoning, and the scarred man let out a amused chuckle. "Never seen someone try to get through the exam by exploiting a loophole in the rules before. He's right though, I said it was only two points off each time you got caught cheating, so he's technically staying within the rules." The scarred proctor's amused grin shifted into an angry scowl. "However, if anyone else get the bright idea of using that trick their whole team will get tossed out and barred from ever taking the Chunin Exam again." The threat seemed more than sufficient to dissuade anyone who might have been inclined to exploit the same loophole Naruto used.

A couple minutes later Naruto silently handed Sakura's test back to the girl with what he hoped would come across as an apologetic grin. _I hope I didn't get her too pissed off at me, but the guy on my left doesn't have crap done on his test, and Sakura-san said that she was the best test-taker in her year, so if I was gonna pick somebody's test to copy off of… _Naruto glanced in the girl's direction, and flinched when he noticed that she was still glaring at him. _Well, hopefully Sakura-san will have calmed down by the time we're done with the exam; she can't stay pissed at me forever. Maybe I oughta buy her a bowl of ramen to apologize; ramen makes everything better.  
_

The remaining ten minutes passed in relative silence, save for the semi-frequent interruptions whenever a team got caught cheating too many times and got tossed out by the chunin helping Ibiki proctor the exam. While most teams exited with relatively good grace, a few tried to argue with the chunin, which never went well for the younger, less experienced ninja. The lucky ones got away with nothing more than a severely bruised ego; the others wound up with much more literal bruises.

"Alright." Ibiki snapped when the time limit expired. After sweeping a glare across the entire room the scarred special jonin growled. "It's been 45 minutes, now it's time for the tenth question." The man gave a dark chuckle. "However, before we get down to it, there are a couple of additional rules I'd like to go over–"

The special jonin's speech was just beginning to gather momentum when Kankuro slipped back into the room after his supposed bathroom break and interrupted it. Ibiki shot the boy a particularly annoyed glare, and then said. "You made it just in time; if you'd spent another minute playing with your doll you would've been locked out of the exam." Ibiki smirked at Kankuro's obvious shock that his ploy had failed to deceive the proctors. "Now sit down and shut up."

Ibiki returned his attention to the genin as a whole, and continued his speech. "Now, if nobody else wants to waste my time and lose more points, I'll explain. These are the rules for the tenth question: first, you have to decide whether you'll take the tenth question or not –"

"We have to choose whether or not we'll take it?" Temari cut in. "Why do we have to choose? What happens if we don't take it?"

"If you don't accept the tenth question you and your teammates automatically fail the exam." Ibiki answered.

"Well that's a stupid rule then!" One of the other chunin candidates burst out. "Why would anyone refuse to take the question if that makes us fail?"

"Because …" Ibiki inserted a dramatic pause before his monologue continued. "Anyone who takes the tenth question and gets it wrong will never be allowed to take the Chunin Exam again."

"That's bullshit!" Kiba leapt up from his seat and shouted at the special jonin. "There are people who've had plenty of chances to take the exam before, but some of us taking it for the first time! It's not fair!"

Ibiki chuckled. "The ninja world isn't about being fair, and I'm not here to coddle brats like you if you're not ready to deal with reality. Maybe other proctors like to go easy on their chunin candidates, but I'm running this exam, which means this time I get to set the rules." Ibiki turned his back on the genin and remained silent for a few seconds, and then looked over his shoulder and declared. "However, I'm not completely unmerciful, so if you don't think you've got what it takes I'll give you a way out." The jonin returned his full attention to the genin, and announced with a smirk. "If you're not completely sure you can get the tenth question right, you can always give up and try again next time."

Ibiki gave the genin a few seconds to absorb the implication of the exam's rules before he continued. "I'll give you a couple minutes to decide what you want to do. If you don't want to take the question, just raise your hand; once we've confirmed your number and identified your teammates you can go. Maybe next time you'll end up with someone who's willing to go easier on you instead of having me in charge of your exam."

_Damn, he's got us in a tough spot._ Naruto grimaced at the scarred examiner. _Either take the question and risk getting it wrong and being stuck as a genin forever, or give up and fail your entire team. Plus, we've gotta make our decision before we even know what kinda question he's gonna ask; it might be something insanely difficult that only a couple people have a chance of getting right. Still … I'm not gonna back down; there's no way the Old Man would let him make the test completely impossible to pass, and if there's a way to pass I know me and Tenten-chan and Bushy Brows are gonna find it._

Naruto smirked as a whimsical thought occurred to him. _Besides, if I do get it wrong and end up stuck as a genin forever I could always just move to Kiri or even Kumo; neither one of them would have to accept me being stuck as a genin forever just because I messed up Konoha's exam._ Naruto frowned, and briefly turned his attention to Yugito's borrowed team of genin. _Wait a minute … there's no way Kumo would go along with letting Konoha stick three of their ninja at genin rank forever; it's way too much for two villages don't even like each other. Suna wouldn't accept a rule like that either; hell, even most of Konoha's subordinate villages like Kusa and Taki wouldn't be happy about Konoha interfering in their internal affairs like that. There's no way Konoha would piss off all it's allies just for a freaking chunin exam._

_He's bluffing!_ Naruto realized. _There's no way Konoha could enforce that rule on all of the other villages participating in the exam, and trying to wouldn't accomplish anything but pissing off all our allies. The only people Konoha could actually keep stuck at genin rank are its own ninjas, but there's no way we'd do that when we know nobody else would go along with the rule, and it's really a pretty stupid rule to begin with. The only explanation is that he's making up the whole thing about leaving us stuck as genin forever if we get the tenth question wrong … but why would he make up a rule that he knows is completely unenforceable?_

Before Naruto could work out the answer to that question, the older boy sitting his left shot out of his chair and raised a hand. "I … I'm not going to take the question." The boy gasped. "Inoho, Gennai … I'm sorry, but … I can't do it, I can't risk having to stay a genin forever."

Once the first person gave up it opened the floodgates; there were half a dozen other people whose resolve had already been wavering, and once they saw one person break that was enough to push them over the edge. That prompted even more of the genin to lose their nerve, and soon the room was echoing with cries of surrender.

_So that's what his game is._ Naruto frowned thoughtfully. _Crank the pressure up as high as he can, and see who can take it and who ends up cracking. Makes a lot of sense coming from the guy who's in charge of Torture and Interrogation; I was kinda wondering why they put a torture expert in charge of a written exam. Not a bad idea, but even if I hadn't figured out what he's up to it wouldn't have worked on me. I went up against a Kage, it's gonna take more than Ibiki to scare me._

Naruto looked over in Tenten and Lee's direction, and shot them a big grin and a thumbs-up. _There's no way I can tell them what Ibiki's up to from this far away, but I can at least try to let them know they shouldn't be scared of him._ After a few seconds, Naruto's teammates both smiled and nodded to him, and the boy returned his attention to the exam's proctor. _Now I just have to sit back and see how much of the competition Ibiki's gonna get rid of for me; every team he breaks is one less I've gotta deal with later in the exam._

Naruto sat back and watched as a dozen teams dropped out of the exam, one after another. _Geez, at this rate I bet there's only gonna be a couple teams that have the guts to take the question_. The boy glanced over at his pink-haired neighbor, and a sudden thought occurred to him. _Her team's probably gonna stick around; there's no way Sasuke would drop out, and his two fangirls wouldn't knock him out of the test even if they knew they couldn't get the tenth question right. If they're gonna stick around no matter what, maybe I oughta clue her in to what Ibiki's up to; it doesn't really hurt my team's position, and it'll help smooth things over from me swiping her test to get my answers. I wanna get along with Kakashi's team, after all.  
_

"Hey, Sakura-san." Naruto whispered to the girl in question.

"What do you want now, Naruto?" The girl hissed, glaring at him resentfully. _As soon as we get out of here I'm gonna make you pay for embarrassing me like that! Hell yeah!  
_

"Um … I just wanted to let you know that, well…" Naruto chuckled nervously as the girl continued to glare at him. "I guess what I wanna say is that you shouldn't get too worried about the tenth question, 'cause it's a fake."

"Huh?" The girl's glare disappeared as she regarded Naruto with a puzzled expression on her face. "What're you talking about?"

"Ibiki-san's just trying to scare people into giving up." Naruto elaborated. "He's the guy in charge of Torture and Interrogation, so he knows all about how to screw with people's heads and scare the crap outta them. There's no way he could really leave people stuck as genins forever; it would piss off way too many of our allies."

The girl frowned in thought for a moment and then hesitantly said. "So, what he's really doing is seeing how many people he can scare into quitting?"

"Yeah, that's what I think is going on." Naruto answered. "It makes sense if you think about it; the first part of the test wasn't exactly straightforward since the real point was to try and make people cheat and get away with it, so why should the tenth question be what it looks like?"

"Why are you telling me this?" Sakura's eyes narrowed and a note of suspicion entered her voice. "We're on different teams, so helping me will just make it harder on your team later on." _Is he trying to set me up for a trap? Maybe he knows more about the exam than he's letting on; he did work in Hokage-sama's office for months, he could easily have inside information about the what the text is going to be like._

"Well, I did feel kinda bad for stealing your test like that." Naruto apologized. After a moment's thought the boy shrugged and added. "Besides, you're smart, so I didn't think you'd run away from the tenth question since you'd be pretty sure you could get it right."

"Oh." Sakura flushed slightly at the unexpected compliment._ I suppose I should have given him the benefit of the doubt. Besides, from how his sparring match with Sasuke-kun went I don't think he would need to resort to underhanded tricks to beat our team in a fight anyway. Sasuke-kun has gotten stronger since then, but he's not up to Naruto-san's level yet and Naruto-san has probably gotten even stronger since their last fight. Plus, I'm pretty sure his other teammates could beat me and Akane with no trouble...  
_

Naruto frowned for a moment, and then added. "By the way, you wanna stay away from the Suna team that has the guy with no eyebrows, the guy in a kabuki suit, and the the blond girl with her set up in four tails. The guy with no eyebrows is a jinchuriki like me, except that he's not like me 'cause he's psychotic. The guy nearly killed his brother just for getting on his nerves; he would kill you and your team just for being there if he gets in a bad mood."

"Oh." Sakura looked around the room until the she found the boy Naruto was talking about. "Thank you for the warning, Naruto-san."

"Yeah, pass it along to everyone else if you get a chance." Naruto requested. "I don't want a bunch of Konoha ninja's getting killed 'cause they don't know how dangerous he is."

"Is he really that dangerous?"

"You know I'm pretty strong, right?" Naruto asked; when Sakura nodded in agreement Naruto continued. "Just think how dangerous I'd be if I really, really wanted to kill people."

Sakura considered the idea for a moment, and shuddered in fear. _Kakashi-sensei said Naruto-san could have killed Sasuke-kun in one hit if he'd wanted to, and Sasuke-kun's supposed to be the strongest ninja in our year. The idea of that much power with none of Naruto's decency or self-restraint __… __I __… __ I think I'm starting to understand why people are so scared of jinchuriki._

The tide of surrendering genin finally began to taper off as every team that could be broken by Ibiki's methods gave up. Perhaps some of the genin would have found their courage if anyone had the guts to stand up to the torture expert, but nobody did. With their courage gone, team after team decided not to take a chance on Ibiki's sadistic choice. While Naruto liked seeing so much of the competition removed, things were starting to go a little too far. _Geez, at this rate there's not gonna be anybody left for the next part of the test! Well, my team won't give up, and I bet Yugito's team knows Ibiki couldn't actually follow through on his threat with them. Neji and Gaara's teams don't seem like the type to quit either, and I already figured that Sakura and Sasuke team isn't going to drop out. Looks like Kurenai-san's team is going to stay in too. So, there's gonna be at least six teams moving on…_

"This whole Chunin Exam is getting to be way too troublesome…" Shikamaru grumbled, slowly raising his hand.

"Shikamaru!" Ino shouted at her teammate. "If you don't put your hand down right now I swear I'll…" The girl trailed off threateningly, shaking a fist in Shikamaru's direction and deciding to let her teammate decide for himself just what she would do to him.

Shikamaru's hand paused while it was halfway up, and when the boy took no further actions after a few seconds Ibiki scowled and demanded. "Well, are you quitting or not?"

Shikamaru heaved out a put-upon sigh, and with a groan and dropped his hand. "This Chunin Exam is troublesome, but if I quit now I'll have to listen to Ino yelling at me for months, and that'll be even worse. I guess I'm staying in." _Maybe I'll get lucky and the tenth question will be too hard; if I can't ever become a chunin then I'll get to keep doing easy missions like babysitting and cleanup duty instead of having to move up to the challenging missions where I'd actually have to work. Man, this is such a drag.  
_

The last team to give up was from Kusa. Much like with team ten, the team's girl tried to browbeat her teammate into continuing on with the exam, but despite her best efforts the red-haired girl with big glasses couldn't persuade her comrade to stick out the question. Once a single member of the team refused to risk taking the tenth question the entire team would get toseed out, no matter how much the remaining members wanted to stay in the exam; the remaining genin could heat the Kusa girl continuing to yell at her teammate long after the trio left the room.

"Eight teams left." Ibiki announced, looking over the genin speculatively. "You sure you want to risk the tenth question? Lots of very skilled genin decided not to risk it; what makes you think you've got a better chance than they do?"

_Looks like everyone who's gonna quit already has__, and all his trying to scare people and drag things out is starting to piss me off_. "Just give us the freaking question already!" Naruto snapped at the proctor. "I'm getting tired of all this waiting around while you try to build up suspense and scare us."

Ibiki fixed the brash young jinchuriki with a death glare. At first Naruto matched Ibiki's glare with one of his own, although after a few seconds he began to feel feel distinctly uncomfortable facing Ibiki's stony gaze. However, even though the interrogation expert managed to cow him, Naruto refused to let it show and was not about to surrender. "So that's how it is?" Ibiki asked, returning his attention to the rest of the genin. "This could be the most important decision of your lives; you screw this up and your ninja career is effectively over unless you really like walking dogs and chasing chickens. I'll give you one last chance to quit..."

"I didn't do the rest of your stupid test just to give up now!" Naruto shot back. "I know you've been trying to scare us all into giving up on this exam, but I'm not gonna do it! You don't scare me! I came here to become a chunin; no way I'm gonna run away before the first part of the exam's even over!"

_The kid's got guts; not many kids his age can stand up to me like that._ "Alright then." The special jonin's gaze swept the classroom one last time, confirming that the other 20 genin were not about to break. "Nice to see some of you have some guts. Now then …" Ibiki paused for a few seonds to let suspense build up, then suddenly smiled and announced. "Congratulations, you pass the first test."

"We already pass?" Sakura asked. "What about the tenth question?"

"There was no tenth question." Ibiki paused for a second, then grinned and amended. "Well, I suppose it would be fair to say that the choice you faced of whether you would stay in the test or quit was actually the tenth question, and by getting it right you pass the test."

"So the rest of the test was completely pointless." Naruto grumbled. Man, I can't believe I wasted all that time worrying about my answers..."

"Nothing about my test was pointless." Ibiki's smile was rather unsettling to the genin he had spent the last hour trying to intimidate. "The first nine questions had already served their purpose as a test of your information gathering ability. The questions on this test were far too complicated for most genin to be able to answer on their own, and even if you managed to get one or two of them right that wouldn't be enough to beat the other teams. In other words, as I'm sure most of you realized, the only way to score enough points to beat the other teams was to cheat."

One of the Konoha teams, the only one Naruto didn't recognize, got up from their seats. "So," Ibiki continued, "Since the entire point of the test was to cheat, I had team of Chunin mixed into the crowd who had all the answers; otherwise there might not have been anyone with the answers for you to cheat off of."

_So, one of the teams that passed the exam wasn't even really a team._ Naruto realized. _That means there's just seven teams moving on to the next part of the exam; mine, Neji's, Kurenai-san's, Kakashi's, Asuma-san's, Yugito's, and Gaara's. Man, there were more than fifty teams when this exam started; they really narrowed things down fast. Guess it makes sense though; Ibiki set up the first stage of the exam to weed out anybody who wasn't really serious about making Chunin._

"Furthermore, by having the test scores calculated by team instead of doing it individually, we encouraged teammates to help each other succeed if one of them couldn't handle the exam on their own." Ibiki's gaze lingered on Kankuro and Temari for a seond then went to Ino and her two teammates before he continued. "Not every ninja has information gathering skills, and any chunin should understand that they need to be able to cover their teammates' weaknesses or accept help when they don't have the right skills themselves. Of course, anyone who does a bad job of cheating and gets caught in the act fails the exam." Ibiki continued, pausing to smirk at Naruto before he amended, "Well, unless they find a loophole in the rules, that is, but knowing how to get around or take advantage of other people's rules is also part of being a ninja."

With a grimace, Ibiki removed his headband reavealing a mass of horrible scar tissue covering the top of his head. "There are times when the right piece of information can alter the course of an entire war, where one fact is worth hundreds of lives. In situations like that you will be expected to do whatever it takes to secure that important information. If you're trying to gather information and the enemy figures out what you're up to, there's no guarantee that information will be accurate, and on the battlefield bad information gets can get you, your teammates, and fellow ninjas killed." Ibiki placed his headband back over his head, covering up the vicious scars once more.

"Alright, but what was the deal with the tenth question?" Temari asked.

Ibiki grinned at the genin and answered. "The tenth question was the most important of all the questions on the test. Whether or not you would take the tenth question was supposed to be a difficult choice. A lot of people would say that the smart thing to do would be to just walk away and not take a risk; in six months you could take the Chunin Exam again, and this time there would be a different proctor who wouldn't put the same rules in place.

"Let me give you an example to demonstrate why people like that shouldn't be chunins. Suppose you pass the rest of the exam and the elders promote you to chunin, and your first mission is to steal some documents from an enemy village. You don't know how many ninja guarding the documents, what their abilities are, if there are traps waiting for you, or any other information about the defenses surrounding your target. What would you do? Would you run away and give up, just because you don't want to put your life on the line, because you're scared your comrades might get hurt?

"No!" Ibiki snapped, answering his own question. "You can't avoid dangerous, risky missions if you want to be a real ninja. People who always want try again next time or wait until it's safe and not take any chances end up never doing anything more important than walking dogs, because that's all they're good for. Real ninja take risks to get the mission done! Those of you who decided to put everything on the line, those of you who had the guts to face a dangerous, uncertain situation, you have what it takes to be chunin." Ibiki gave the chunin candidates one last smile, and announced. "The first phase of the Chunin Exam is complete. Good job, and good luck on the rest of the exam."

Before the 21 genin could begin to properly celebrate the fact that they were one step closer to becoming chunin, one of the windows was smashed in by a large, fast moving black object. Two kunai with ropes attached shot out from the object, and moments later there was a massive banner with the words "Anko Mitarashi, proctor for the second stage of the exam, is here!" written on it. Beneath the banner was a woman with dark purple hair clad in fishnets and a trench coat who was presumably Anko Mitarashi.

"Alright everyone, this is no time to be celebrating!" The woman shouted. "I'm the proctor for the second stage of the exam, Anko Mitarashi! Now come on! Let's go! Follow me!" Anko was disappointed when the genin hopefuls did not immediately leap up from their seats, but instead remained in position and stared at her with dull shock.

"You might want to work on that entrance a bit, I think it wasn't bizarre and shocking enough." Ibiki said, carefully restraining the urge to smirk.

"She's like a female Gai-sensei." Tenten groaned. _If I hear the words "power of youth" I'm getting out of here._

Anko looked over the assembled genin, then shot Ibiki an annoyed look. "You only left me seven teams to play with this time? How am I supposed to have any fun with this test if I've only got a couple of kids to work with?"

"You wouldn't have any fun with students who can't handle my test anyway, they would be a bunch of wimps who would die five minutes in." Ibiki told the woman. "Now the only ones that are left are the really exceptional ones, the best of the best."

"Bah." Anko glowered at the man, and then said. "You could've at least had the courtesy to not stick me with an odd number of teams; my test works better when I've got an even number of teams to work with." Anko looked over the genin once more, and a smile slowly began to form on her face. "Well, that just means another team is gonna get locked out; no more than half the teams can ever get past my test, so at best three of the teams will actually pass while four of you will fail." Anko looked over the genin once more, and a bloodthirsty grin made it's way onto her face "I recognize a couple of them too; Ibiki's right, you kids are gonna be good. I think I'm starting to get a little excited about this test. Alright brats, I'll explain the rules for the second stage of the exam once we get to the testing grounds. Follow me."

_She's n__ot just a female Gai-sensei, she's a psychotic female Gai-sensei_. Tenten was already starting to dread the next stage of the exam.

* * *

"We'll be holding the second stage of the Chunin Exam here." Anko announced once the seven teams. "Welcome to training battleground 44 … also known as the Forest of Death."

"Wow, that doesn't sound ominous at all." Tenten commented, sharing a smirk with Naruto.

"Once the test starts, you'll find out why we call it the Forest of Death." Anko continued.

"Man, Ibiki was a lot scarier than her." Naruto whispered back to Tenten. "I mean, a name like 'The Forest of Death' is just stupid."

Apparantely Naruto had not whispered quietly enough, because moments later a kunai shot out of Anko's hand; if not for the fact that the boy had plenty of training dodging thrown weapons thanks to his work with Tenten the blade would have cut right across his cheek. Naruto turned his attention to the examiner, and saw Anko glaring at him with her arms folded over her breasts. "You made me miss." The woman pouted. "And I was looking forward to seeing your blood, too."

_Okay, that was creepy and disturbing on multiple levels. Why is Hokage-sama giving a woman like this power over the Chunin Exam_? Tenten grimaced at the eccentric special jonin.

A moment later the mercurial woman was smiling once more, and she pulled a stack of forms out from somewhere in her trench coat. "Anyway, you need to sign these consent forms; otherwise I might get in trouble when some of you die. Now, as for the test itself, you've probably already guessed that part of it is simply surviving within the Forest of Death. At the center of the forest is a tower; your objective is to bring these two scrolls to that tower." Anko reached into her trench coat again and pulled out a pair of scrolls labeled heaven and earth. "Now, normally half the teams would get heaven scrolls, and half would earth scrolls, but since there's an odd number of teams that means there will be one extra heaven or earth scroll floating around. In other words, there will only be three complete sets of scrolls."

"So that means four teams will definitely fail." Lee muttered, a thoughtful look on his face. "This will be a challenging test; none of our opponents will be easily defeated."

"Also, there's a time limit." Anko continued. "You have 120 hours, or exactly five days, to retrieve your scroll and bring it to the tower."

"Five days!" Choji shouted, clearly distressed. "What are we supposed to do for food?"

"It's a survival test, getting food is just another part of the challenge." Anko replied, smirking at the rotund Akimichi. "Besides, the forest is full of things to eat; poisonous plants, poisonous animals, man-eating animals, giant bears, giants snakes, giant bugs; it's practically a buffet in there.

"Now, there are a couple of rules you need to know." Anko smiled and began counting off on her fingers. "First off, the only way to win is to make it to the tower with your scrolls within the time limit; anyone who doesn't manage that gets disqualified. Secondly, if any of your teammates die or get injured badly enough to be seriously disabled, you lose; the only way to pass is if all three of your teammates make it to the tower in relatively good condition. Third, there's no quitting halfway through the test; once you go in there's no coming out until the test is over. And finally, you're not allowed to look inside either of the scrolls."

"What happens if you do?" Naruto asked.

Anko gave a sinister chuckle and said. "Well, let's just say that if you do that you'll be in for an interesting surprise. Part of being a chunin is handling classified information, and sometimes you won't even know what that information is. After all, that way if you get captured the enemy can't torture the information out of you." Anko grinned and announced. "Well, that's it for the rules; turn in your consent forms to get your scroll, and then pick a gate." Right as the genin were about to depart, Anko said. "Oh yeah, one last bit of advice: try not to die."

* * *

"Sasuke-kun, I'm really don't think this is a good idea." Sakura was rather nervous about openly disagreeing with the boy of her dreams, but under the circumstances she felt compelled to say something. "I just … why do you want to go after someone who Naruto-san specifically told us was dangerous and would kill us if we tried to fight him?"

"The entire point of this exam is to prove our strength." Sasuke answered. "How are we supposed to do that if we avoid all the dangerous opponents? Didn't the last proctor say that the entire point of the exam was to prove that we're willing to take risks and put our lives on the line?"

"I understand that, but…" Sakura grimaced, and tried to find some way to express herself that would not seem like an implied insult against her crush. "It's just, there's a difference between taking a reasonable risk and doing something that could get us all killed. If what Naruto-san told me is true, then…"

Akane sighed and reluctantly said. "If it gets that bad we can always just hand over our scroll. I don't like the idea of giving up, but it beats dying, and if that Gaara guy is more than Sasuke-kun can handle then we'll just have to take out two other teams to make up for losing our first scroll; I don't think we would lose to either of the other teams from our year with Sasuke-kun on our side."

Sasuke glanced at the red-shirted girl for a moment, and then gave a sharp nod of agreement. "She's right; I want to see just how dangerous this Gaara guy is. If he's out of our league we can hand over the scroll and walk away, and if he's not then we'll get a chance to test ourselves out against a real opponent."

"But, um …" Sakura bit her lip for a moment, then hesitantly said. "But if he outmatches you as much as Naruto did, and wouldn't hesitate to use lethal force, then he might kill you before we even get a chance to give up our scroll."

Sasuke shot the girl an annoyed glare and announced. "I've gotten stronger since then, and I have my sharingan now. I won't get taken down in one hit. Besides, I saw Naruto's team talking to Neji Hyuuga's team before the test started. I know we can't beat Naruto's team, and I don't like our chances against Neji Hyuuga's team either; if they're working together then that's a combination nobody has a chance against. Since only three teams make it through and they've all but got two of those spots locked up, we'll probably have to fight the Suna team to stand a chance of actually making through this part of the test. If we don't at least try to take them on we might as well just give up right now."

"Y'know, there is another possibility." Akane suggested. "If this Gaara guy is supposed to be a jinchuriki like Naruto then maybe we ought to try teaming up with him; with another jinchuriki on our side, and maybe one other team just to be safe, we could probably beat even the combined strength of Naruto and Neji's teams. It certainly sounds safer than trying to take on a psycho jinchuriki by ourselves."

"That's not a bad idea." Sasuke conceded. "Once we meet up with Gaara's team we'll decide whether fighting him or teaming up with him seems like a better idea."

_This is a bad idea._ Sakura remained silent despite her misgivings; there did not appear to be anything more she could to dissuade Sasuke without offending him. _He doesn't like my suggestions, but Akane keeps coming up with ideas he likes. If I keep pushing him on this it'll just make Akane look good and me look bad. Besides, I'm sure Sasuke-kun knows what he's doing…_

It took them the better part of an hour to finally locate Gaara's team, and even then finding him seemed to be a matter of luck more than any type of skill. When the Konoha trio finally located their trio they saw him walking along the forest floor with his teammates, not even thinking to keep an eye on the trees above him. _Of course, Suna's in the middle of a desert, so they wouldn't be used to dealing with all the tactical issues that come with fighting in a forest._ Sasuke gave a tight smile. _Looks like I'll be able to set up an ambush and hit him before he even knows I'm here._

Sasuke glanced over at his two teammates, and both the girls nodded, grasping the Uchiha's plan without the need for any spoken words. _Maybe Sasuke-kun can do this after all_. Sakura frowned down at the seemingly unaware Suna trio._ Even a much stronger opponent can be defeated when you strike from ambush._

The Konoha trio jumped through the treetops for a few minutes, until they were in position to drop down on the unsuspecting Suna team. Sasuke looked at each of his teammates, and then shifted his hands into the tiger seal, a handsign normally associated with fire jutsu. After a moment's consideration, Sakura pulled out a pair of kunai, while Akane grabbed a double handful of shuriken. Now that they had a rough plan of attack in place, the trio droped down from the trees, the two girls hurled their throwing weapons at Gaara's teammates while Sasuke's hands shot through the signs for his Great Fireball jutsu.

A moment before Sasuke could unleash his attack, the girl pulled the fan off her back, snapped it open, and waved it in the Konoha trio's direction. The shuriken and kunai were scattered by the sudden hurricane that Temari's fan generated, and the wind attack hit Sasuke hard enough to throw off his fireball's aim. Enhanced by the power of Temari's wind jutsu, Sasuke's fireball consumed several of the trees near Gaara's team, but did nothing to the team itself. _Dammit, with a jutsu enhancing it that fireball would have done the trick if I'd managed to hit with it._

Moments later the trio of stunned Konoha genin fell to the ground, more than a little battered by the wind attack and their own rough landing. "Just like I expected." Temari announced, seeming quite pleased with herself. "Our sensei warned us about the sorts of tricks we could expect from people who are used to fighting in forests. It was easy to make ourselves look vulnerable by pretending we weren't watching the trees and keeping an eye out for attacks from above. You played right into our hands."

Sasuke glared at the Suna kunoichi as he picked himself up off of the forest floor. "You got lucky; if I'd been half a second faster my fireball would have hit all three of you. Wind users like you are especially vulnerable to my fire jutsu."

"My brother could've handled your little fireball with no problem." Temari countered breezily. "But I don't let runts like you bother him. I'll make you an offer though; hand over your scroll right now, and we'll let you walk away with your lives."

"No." Gaara declared coldly, glaring at Temari before he fixed Sasuke with an intense stare. "You … you have the same eyes as I do. I can see it in you; the hatred, the death, the desperate need for power. I thought Uzumaki would have those eyes, but he doesn't … you do."

"Gaara, what are you…"

"Stay out of this Temari!" The Suna jinchuriki snapped. "He's my prey."

"Well, well, well." While Gaara's attention remained fixed on Sasuke, the other five genin all jumped in surprise at the unexpected voice and looked up at the strange man who had appeared in the trees above them. "Isn't this an interesting little scene? I didn't expect you to have made some friends in the time it took me to track you down, but maybe that'll just make things a little more interesting..."

Sasuke turned a regard the newcomer with a wary glare. "Who the hell are you?"

* * *

The temporary alliance between Naruto and Neji's teams had not take long to bear it's first fruit; before the exam had even officially started Neji had used his byakugan to see which teams wound up with which scrolls, and as soon as the two teams met up in the forest he shared that information with Naruto's team.

"So, between our two teams we've already got one complete set of scrolls." Neji declared. "The sand team, the Uchiha's team, and Hinata-sama's team all have Heaven scrolls, while the Kumo team and the new Ino-Shika-Cho squad have the other Earth scrolls. I would suggest we target the Kumo team and and Hinata-sama's squads first so we'll have two pairs of scrolls, then target the Ino-Shika-Cho team; if we can get to them fast enough we'll have all three Earth scrolls, which means we'll have locked out the rest of the teams."

"Yeah, I guess that's good." Naruto agreed reluctantly. "I definitely agree we should go after the Kumo team; I want them outta here." _Well, I want Yugito gone, but the best way to get rid of her is to remove her excuse for being here_. "Getting the last Earth scroll makes sense too, though it might not be a bad idea to hold onto it and give it to someone else instead of just locking a team out; whoever we give that scroll to would owe us a big favor afterwards. However, I kinda like Kurenai-san's team; I don't really wanna beat them up."

Maeko scoffed at Naruto's declaration, and brashly declared. "Hey, if you don't have the guts for it we'll take care of them for you. Should've figured you'd chicken out once we actually got down to business."

"Just ignore her." Masaru advised the other members of the two teams. "It's less trouble that way than trying to argue with her."

"Naruto." Tenten took Masaru's advice and tuned the foul-tempered kunoichi on Neji's team out. "I understand why you wouldn't want to hurt a team you're friends with, but the only way to pass the exam is to go up against one of the other teams. Besides, we won't be trying to seriously injure them; with our numbers and strength I'm sure we could subdue without doing any real damage."

"The teams who know our strength might even choose to surrender without a fight." Lee offered. "Either of our teams would be formidable by itself, and none of the other teams could face all of us at the same time and have much hope of victory."

"He is correct." Neji gave a slight nod in Lee's direction. "Few would dare challenge the might a jinchuriki or the wielder of one of Konoha's most powerful kekkei genkai, especially when that power is in the hands of a prodigy. To face both at the same time, and four other ninja of varying skills as well, would be foolish."

"Oh please." Maeko snapped out acidly. "Why would anybody be scared of Naruto? Because he's got a fox in his belly? 'Cause he ran off like a moron and he saved some little shithole of a country full of crappy ninjas and idiots? If you ask me, Kiri was getting exactly what it deserved with their Mizukage; I just wish he'd finished the job. It's –"

Whatever Maeko was about to say next was abruptly cut off by Naruto's fist slamming into her face, sending the girl sprawling. "That was unforgivable." The boy growled. "I don't care if you insult me, I can handle it and everyone knows you're a bitch anyways, but if you ever say anything like that again…"

Maeko wiped a few drops of blood off the bottom of her lip, and fixed the boy with a nasty smirk. "Not my fault you can't handle the truth. I suppose it's fitting though; a wothless ninja goes and saves a worthless country."

"Maeko, please just shut up." Masaru groaned. _What's going on with her? It's not like she's normally a nice, pleasant person, but this a lot worse than her usual behavior._

Maeko scowled for a few seconds, and then slowly returned to her feet and turned her back on the two teams before offering an exaggerated shrug. "Fine, if you don't want to hear the truth I won't force it on you. It's not my job to teach the lot of you things that anyone with half a brain ought to know, anyway."

"Well, if Maeko is done being as horrific as she can possibly manage, perhaps we could get back to business?" Tenten inquired, giving the other girl's back an annoyed glare. "Neji, how far can your byakugan see? Could you find some of our targets for us?"

"If they're close enough." Neji answered; moments later the veins around his eyes distended as he activated the Hyuuga kekkei genkai. After a few moments, Neji spoke up once more. "The closest target is the Ino-Shika-Cho team. They are a kilometer to the southwest; we should be able to be in position to ambush them in … wait." A frown made its way onto the Hyuuga's face. "There's a single figure, approaching our position from the northwest. He's moving fast; faster than any genin should be capable of. He'll be right on top of us in seconds. Can't identify him, so we should assume he's hostile."

_Aw crap, it must be Yugito making her move! It figures; we're all alone out here in the middle of the forest, so by the time word got out about the fact that she'd grabbed me she'd probably have enough of a head start to make a clean getaway._ Naruto and the rest of the genin turned to the northwest, waiting for the lone attacked to appear. _No, wait, that's not…_

"Hello, Naruto-kun." The newcomer's voice was perfectly flat, lacking the slightest hint of emotion or inflection.

_That's not Yugito. But, those robes … they're just like she said. Black robes with red clouds on them. And those eyes … how does he have the sharingan?__ The entire Uchiha clan got wiped out except for Sasuke, and aside from him the only person besides Kakashi who would have a sharingan is…_

"Itachi … Uchiha?" Neji gasped in shock, having reached the same conclusion as Naruto.

"Indeed." Itachi Uchiha, the man who had singlehandedly massacred one of the strongest ninja clans in Konoha at the tender age of thirteen regarded the genin emotionlessly. "Will you come with me willingly, Naruto-kun, or will I have to use force?"

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry about the long delay, but real life takes precedence keeping my fanfic up to date. I'll keep the updates coming as fast as I can, but things are as they are. As long as I'm apologizing, I'll toss in an apology for the evil cliffhanger ending, even thought I'm really not all that sorry.

Since I'm sure there will be a lot of reviews asking where Kabuto and/or the Sound genin team are, I'll just say that their absence is a very deliberate thing, and you'll find out what they're up to eventually.

I could use an experienced and skilled beta reader or two; trying to do all of my own copy-editing is not working as well as I would like. Being willing to go over the already published chapters and fix any leftover errors would be a definite plus.


	15. Battle in the Forest of Death

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Naruto

* * *

"That's Itachi Uchiha?" Masaru asked, looking at the infamous rogue ninja with barely concealed terror. "I'd like to suggest a strategy; I say we all run like hell. When he was our age, he was an ANBU captain and he wiped out the entire Uchiha clan by himself, and he's probably gotten stronger since then. I mean, does anyone actually think we have a chance of beating him even with numbers on our side?"

None of the genin disagreed with Masaru's assessment of the situation. Naruto found his thoughts drifting back the cryptic note he had received from Yugito a year ago, warning him to be on the lookout for anyone in black robes with red clouds, exactly like the ones Itachi was wearing; she had told him to run for his life if he ever encountered someone like that. "Alright guys, let's split up and run for it; I don't think any of us actually have a chance of outrunning him in a straight-up race, but if we all go in different directions some of us will get away because he'll only be able to chase one of us at a time. Try to get back to one of the gates and find someone; we need to warn people that Itachi is in the village." _Odds are he's after me, so if I go the opposite direction from everyone else I can probably lead him away from them while they get to safety and go get help._

Both of Naruto's teammates immediately turned to face the boy; Lee seemed somewhere between concerned and impressed, while Tenten looked more than a little angry with him. _I haven't forgotten about that weird message Naruto told us he got from Yugito; if that little idiot thinks I'm going to let him sacrifice himself so we can make a clean getaway … Like hell I'll let him do that._ "No, if we do that Itachi will just pick us off one by one." Tenten countered, resisting the urge to smack Naruto upside the head for the gesture of stupid nobility she was certain the boy had been planning. "I say we send one person back to get help while the rest of us work together to buy time and stay alive until reinforcements arrive; we've got a much better chance of surviving if we work together than we do if we run off on our own."

"Maeko or Lee would be the best ones to send." Neji suggested. "Even a master of genjutsu would have a hard time beating a sharingan, especially in the hands of genius like Itachi, so Maeko's skills, such as they are, wouldn't do us much good in this fight anyway." _Lee's grades were barely better than Maeko's, so I expect he would be just as much of a worthless hindrance in a serious fight like this. We can't afford to have losers dragging us down against an opponent like Itachi Uchiha._

"Nah, I can hold him off by myself with my shadow clones." Naruto offered. "I mean, if me and my clones scatter off in every direction it would take Itachi hours to track the real me down, and that would give the rest of you more than enough time to get away."

Tenten let out an annoyed growl at Naruto's stubborn insistence on putting himself in danger to protect his teammates. "Dammit Naruto! What's the point of having teammates if you run off and try to fight every single important battle by yourself! You think Lee and I are gonna just stand around and let you do that? We're your friends, you idiot! Friends are supposed to help each other when they're in trouble! I know we're not as strong as you, but that doesn't mean you have to protect us and try to keep us out of dangerous fights!"

"Indeed, Gai-sensei always told us that only by working as a team could we truly reach the full potential of our youthful power." Lee added, frowning down at Naruto. "Do you think we are so weak that we could do nothing to help you in this battle?"

Neji frowned in confusion at the behavior coming from Naruto's teammates, but it didn't take the Hyuuga genius long to connect the dots. "You think he's after you, don't you Naruto? That's why both your plans involve removing yourself from the rest of our group; you intend to sacrifice yourself so the rest of us can get away."

"My, my, that's quite noble of you Naruto." Masaru gave the jinchuriki an approving look. "You understand, of course, that as fellow Konoha ninjas we could never accept such a gesture; one of the basic principles we learned back in the Academy is that we are always supposed to support our comrades, even in the face of mortal peril. Still, I'm impressed; you really have grown since you graduated last year; from loud-mouthed braggart to a noble, self-sacrificing hero."

"This is my fight." Naruto scowled at his allies, stubbornly refusing to give ground. "I'm the one he's after, so he'll leave the rest of you alone if I'm not with you. Besides, I can probably do a better job of running away if I'm all by myself; if I'm in a group I'll be more worried about protecting my friends than I will about getting away from Itachi. This way if things go bad at least I'm the only one in danger. Also, if I don't have to worry about any of my friends I can use more of the Fox's power, when it's just me and the bad guy I don't have to worry as much about what happens if I lose my self-control."

"You really are an idiot." Maeko announced, glaring at Naruto scornfully. "Even if you're his main target, he won't let the rest of us get away to raise the alarm, and bring in reinforcements. You think someone at Itachi's level can't use some sort of clone jutsu or something to go after you and us at the same time?"

Tenten grimaced as though she had swallowed something particularly unpleasant, and then uttered four words she had never expected to use together. "I agree with Maeko. Whatever his interest in you is, he won't want all the jonin and ANBU getting in his way and hunting him. A ninja of his level probably has a dozen different ways he can stop us even while he's mostly focused on chasing you."

"Alright, fine, I'll come up with a new plan then." Naruto grumbled. _What are they all getting so angry about? I'm just trying to keep them from getting dragged into my problems, but Tenten-chan looks super-pissed even freaking Maeko is saying it's a bad idea._ "Alright, how about this; I'll send a few shadow clones to go get help, and the rest of us try to hold off Itachi until help gets here. Is everyone happy with this new plan, that's much more likely to get all of you killed for something that's really just my problem?" Naruto crossed his arms across his chest petulantly. _Hmm, maybe I could run off with the clones I create and just leave one behind, then dispel it after a minute or two. Nah, Tenten-chan or someone else would probably guess at what I was up to and smack whoever gets left behind just to make sure._

"We're friends Naruto." Much of the anger had left Tenten's, replaced by a gentle, persuasive tone, but there was still a noticeable undercurrent of annoyance at the boy's stubbornness. "That means it's not just your problem, it's ours too." Tenten placed a hand on the boy's shoulder and drove her point home. "If it was me or Lee who was in trouble, would you just leave us to deal with our problems by ourselves, even if we asked you to?" Tenten smiled fondly at Naruto. "Of course you wouldn't, you'd be right there at our sides, helping us whether we wanted you to or not. That's what being a friend means to you. Do you really think it means less to us? Aren't we your friends too? Do you think we wouldn't go just as far to help you as you'd go to help us?"

"Yeah, you're right Tenten-chan." Naruto grinned sheepishly at the girl. "If it was you or Bushy Brows in trouble I wouldn't leave you on your own no matter what." Naruto impulsively reached over and hugged the girl, and after a moment of surprised hesitation Tenten returned it. After a few seconds, the two pulled back from each other, exchanging a fond but slightly nervous smile.

"Well, if you two lovebirds are done being sickeningly sweet, can we get back to dealing with the psycho rogue ninja who's going to kill us all?" Maeko sneered at the couple, injecting more acid than usual into her tone. "Maybe if we ask him nicely he'll give you a couple minutes to make out with each other before the fight starts."

While Masaru quietly chided Maeko for ruining the moment, Lee frowned at the rogue ninja in question. "Why has he not attacked us yet?" Lee asked. "It is curious that he seems content to sit back and wait while we discussed our tactics, and even got into an argument with Naruto over the nature of friendship. Most opponents would have taken the opportunity to attack by now, before we had time to come up with a coherent plan."

"He probably doesn't think it matters." Neji muttered darkly. "Itachi is an opponent far beyond our capabilities; he doesn't need to exploit any weaknesses or moments of distraction to gain an advantage over us, and no amount of planning would be sufficient to allow us to defeat him. He has no reason to worry about anything we might try to do; as soon as we encountered him at this place he was destined to win any battle that followed, and we were destined to lose."

"That's it! I'm really getting sick of all your destiny bullshit Neji!" Maeko shouted at her teammate, gripping his shirt and giving the Hyuuga boy a rough shake. "I swear, I bet you can't even eat dinner without spending half an hour lecturing your food about how you were destined to eat fish with soba noodles!" Turning her attention to the Uchiha rogue, Maeko pulled out a kunai and launched it in the man's direction. "Hey, asshole! Eat this!"

Much to everyone's surprise, especially Maeko's, Itachi made no effort to dodge the attack, and the kunai slammed straight into his chest, sinking in until only the handle was visible. Shocked silence reigned over the clearing as Itachi looked expressionlessly at the weapon lodged in his chest, while the half dozen genin stared at him in utter amazement, then turned back to an equally stunned Maeko. "How the fuck did I do that?" Maeko blurted out, amazed as everyone else that she had actually managed to land what looked like a fatal hit on one of the deadliest ninja in the world.

The answer came a few moments later, as Itachi's body dissolved into a mass of ravens that scattered in a dozen different directions, leaving Maeko's weapon behind. Neji frowned and activated his byakugan, trying to find out where the Uchiha rogue had gone. _That was a strange technique; it wasn't any sort of substitution I've ever seen or heard of, and I can't imagine it could have been some sort of raven clone. It couldn't have been a body flicker either … so what could it have been? And where did Itachi go?_ Neji frowned and extended the range of his byakugan as far as possible, but still found no sign of the Uchiha rogue. With a grimace, Neji realized there was only one conclusion that fit the evidence. "I believe Itachi has trapped us in a genjutsu."

"That would explain why he took no action while we spent time discussing tactics and other concerns." Lee realized. "Since we were already trapped in his illusion, he had no reason to take any further against us. In fact, so long as we remained distracted by other matter we would be far less likely to even realize what had happened to us."

"Well, we all know how to bust out of a genjutsu, right?" The other five genin nodded in response to Naruto's question. "Well, what are we waiting for then, let's get the hell out of here!" Naruto wasted no time in following his own advice, halting the flow of his own chakra and then attempting to disrupt it enough to break the effects of Itachi's genjutsu. Unfortunately, despite his best efforts the young jinchuriki was not having much success; whatever genjutsu Itachi had used was at a far higher level of complexity than the relatively simple illusions Kurenai had used to train him in breaking genjutsu.

Naruto grimaced when he saw that the other genin were not having any more success than he was at escaping the illusion. _Not good. I don't think I'm gonna be able to get out of this easily._ With a mental sigh, Naruto resigned himself to asking for help to get out of the genjutsu. _Hey, Fox, how about a little help here?_

Naruto felt the Nine Tailed Fox's chakra pulse through his body, and moments later the illusionary world shattered and the boy was pulling himself up off the forest floor. _Wow, that went nice and painlessly; I was expecting you to be a real pain about the fact that I had to ask for your help._

"_Keep focused on the rogue ninja who's trying to kill you, you fool!"_ The Nine Tailed Fox snarled inside Naruto's mind. _"I didn't go to all the trouble of freeing you from that genjutsu just so you could get yourself butchered like a pig two seconds later because you weren't paying attention."_

_There's the Demon Fox I'm used to dealing with_. Naruto quickly searched the clearing for the Uchiha rogue, but he saw no sign of Itachi. _He didn't go to all the trouble of coming here just to put a genjutsu on me, then run away, so he's either going to try and hit me with an ambush or he's setting up something nasty._ Naruto kept a wary eye on the forest as the rest of his allies escaped from the genjutsu, so focused on his task that he did not even laugh when Masaru grumbled about the fact that he had to help his team's supposed genjutsu specialist when Maeko proved incapable of breaking the illusion on her own. Lee had needed help as well but at least Lee freely admitted that he was terrible with genjutsu instead of claiming it was his best skill like Maeko did. _Then again, her taijutsu's not that great either, and I've never seen her do anything other than really basic ninjutsu, so maybe genjutsu really is her best skill because it's slightly less crappy than every other skill she has._

"Hey, Neji, any sign of the psycho who's trying to kill all of us?" Naruto asked the Hyuuga right before he created a shadow clone. The clone immediately leapt off towards the edge of the clearing, taking the most direct route possible to the edge of the forest and whatever help he could find. Just as Naruto had suspected she would, Tenten lightly punched him on the shoulder after the clone departed, then gave him an apologetic smile once the result confirmed that he wasn't trying to deceive his friends. However, once the clone got a good distance away from Naruto there was a massive explosion that ripped through the trees surrounding it, dispelling the clone instantly.

"As you can see, I have put the time I had available while you were incapacitated to good use." Itachi announced as he suddenly appeared in the trees above the two genin teams. "If you stray more than thirty meters from your current location you will share the same fate and Naruto-kun's shadow clone; there is no way to escape. Naruto-kun. I ask you once more; will you come with me willingly, or will I be forced to subdue you?"

"What the hell do you want with me, anyway?" Naruto shouted at the rogue ninja. _It's a good thing I sent a clone; if we'd gone with a different plan it could've been Tenten-chan or Bushy Brows or one of the others that got blown up instead. Even Maeko getting blown up would've sucked; sure, she's a massive freaking bitch, but that doesn't mean I wanna see her getting blasted into a dozen pieces and scattered all over the forest._

"My organization, Akatsuki, has an interest in jinchuriki like you, Naruto-kun." Itachi answered, meeting Naruto's anger with implacable calm. "After your actions in Kiri we could no longer afford to ignore your potential; according to our reports you faced the Fourth Mizukage himself in battle alongside the new Mizukage. Whether or not those reports and what they imply about your current skill level are accurate is of great interest to my organization."

"Why do you care about what Naruto did in Kiri?" Tenten demanded, placing herself at Naruto's side but slightly ahead of him, so that she could move between him and the rogue ninja at a moment's notice. No matter how irrational it was, the girl's natural instincts demanded that she try to protect her friend. "And you said your organization had an interest in jinchuriki, what are you up to? Who are the Akatsuki anyway?"

"Akatsuki is an elite organization made up of S-ranked rogue ninjas." Itachi responded. "Our goal is to capture and seal all nine of the Tailed Beasts, or extract them from their current hosts, such as Naruto-kun, Gaara of the Desert, and Nii Yugito."

"Extract them…" Lee frowned, and warily asked. "Does that mean that Naruto would no longer have to bear the burden of serving as the container of the Nine Tailed Fox?"

"The extraction process is always fatal for the jinchuriki." Itachi responded blandly. "There is no other way to remove a Tailed Beast from its host, and if a jinchuriki is killed it will take the beast years to reform on its own. The death of Yagura has caused Akatsuki considerable frustration; many of our plans had to be set aside until the Three Tailed Turtle re-manifests itself three years from now."

"Then … you're planning to capture the Naruto and kill him?" Tenten demanded, placing herself between her dear friend and the man threatening him. "What the hell makes you think we're gonna let you do that?"

"You are incapable of preventing me from accomplishing my mission." Itachi informed the girl. "My mission here solely concerns Naruto Uzumaki; I have no particular reason to harm the rest of you. However if you stand between me and my objective, then you will die. Stand aside."

"Go to hell." Tenten snarled, not budging an inch from her position between Naruto and the man who had apparently come to take Naruto to his death.

"I will fight alongside Naruto-kun with all the youthful power Gai-sensei has instilled in me!" Lee placed himself at Tenten's side, ready for battle.

"Naruto Uzumaki is a shinobi of Konoha." Masaru declared as he stepped forward. "It is our duty to fight alongside him in this battle."

"The outcome of this battle has already been determined." Neji added resolutely as he stepped forward. "If it is my destiny to die this day, then I choose to die fighting alongside my comrades like a true shinobi."

After a few seconds of hesitation, Maeko grumbled, "To hell with it," and the temperamental girl took her place at the side of her fellow Konoha ninjas. "Naruto's an annoying little moron and I don't like him." The girl declared before turning her attention fully on Itachi. "But everyone would get pissed off at me if I tried to stay out of this fight. Besides, you're an asshole who killed his own family, so I don't think you'd really let us go even if we weren't in your way."

For the briefest of moments, Naruto could have sworn he saw a smile on Itachi's face, but when he blinked and checked again the Uchiha rogue was wearing his usual stoic expression. "Very well then, if you stand in my way then I will show you no mercy." Itachi's hands blurred through a quick series of seals as the Uchiha rogue took a deep breath, and the half dozen genin scattered as he unleashed a massive fireball in their direction.

_Crap, he can use fire jutsu; I'm gonna have to be really careful with my wind jutsu, or else I'll just end up making his attacks work better._ Naruto looked over at his comrades and quickly put together a strategy based on what Gai had told him about fighting a sharingan user. "Alright, don't look at his eyes or else he'll be able to smack you with another genjutsu; try to just look at his body when you're fighting him. It's pretty hard to take a sharingan user in a straight fight because his eyes can predict your moves, but if you take him from the flanks or behind then he's just as weak as anyone else. The sharingan can't predict what it doesn't see."

Naruto turned to each of his comrades in turn as he assigned their roles. "Me, Neji, and Bushy Brows are all pretty good at close combat, so we'll go in and take him head on. I'll try to keep his attention focused on me since I'm a jinchuriki I heal faster than the rest of you, so I can handle taking a couple hits while you two flank him. Masaru, you're pretty slippery so you try to get behind him. Tenten will hang back a bit and use her throwing weapons. Maeko …" Naruto hesitated for a second and then said. "You hang back too, and be ready jump in to support anyone gets in serious trouble." _That sounds a lot better than "stay out of the way" and if one of us is in a bad spot she might at least distract Itachi long enough for us to recover._

Naruto's plan met with a chorus of nods as even Maeko conceded that the plan was sensible and Naruto at least sounded like he had a reasonably good grasp on the situation. After taking a few moments to channel some of the Fox's chakra, Naruto rushed forward and launched a series of punches and kicks at the Uchiha rogue. Much to Naruto's annoyance, Itachi seemed quite capable of matching Naruto's speed and power even with the Fox's chakra enhancing him, and Naruto had to take care not to overextend any of the blows or leave himself vulnerable to a counter-attack. Itachi blocked the attacks with almost casual ease, but Naruto kept on the offensive, forcing his opponent to remain engaged with him while his allies moved to flank Itachi. At one point Itachi managed to knock Naruto off balance by slamming a hard block into the boy's shin, but a second later Tenten hurled several kunai at Itachi, forcing the rogue ninja to back off long enough for Naruto to recover.

Naruto immediately re-engaged Itachi, but once more Uchiha rogue managed to counter his blows and this time he slammed a solid punch into Naruto's stomach, knocking the wind out of the boy for a few dangerous seconds. From his position on Itachi's flank, Lee rushed the rogue and launched a Leaf Hurricane kick at the rogue's head. However, right before the kick connected Itachi smoothly dodged out of the way and caught Lee across the chest with an extended arm, knocking the boy out of the air and slamming him hard into the ground. "You basic tactics are sound, but you cannot hope to defeat me with that level of taijutsu."

Tenten sent a barrage of kunai and shuriken at Itachi, to give Lee a chance to recover, but the Uchiha rogue dodged through the weapons with ease. Still, the attack served its purpose by giving Lee a bit of breathing room and enough time to roll away before Itachi had enought time to finish off the downed boy. Neji struck next, lashing out with a lightning-fast series of blows that Itachi blocked with equal speed. In the space of a few seconds, Neji launched a series of sixty-four gentle fist strikes, but despite his best efforts he failed to land a single hit.

"Impressive." Itachi declared blandly. "To have already mastered such an advanced Gentle Fist maneuver at your age is an accomplishment." Itachi slammed a side kick into the Hyuuga prodigy's stomach, sending the white-eyed boy flying back into a tree. "However, my eyes can still see your attacks, and as long as I see you blocking and avoiding is a simple matter. You cannot attack fast enough to get past my eyes."

_Damn, it looks like flanking isn't working that well; he's too fast and good for us to catch him off guard. He's obviously anticipated our strategy, presumably because he already knows the most effective way to fight a single powerful opponent who is also sharingan user._ Masaru grimaced as he watched three of his allies fall to the Uchiha in rapid succession. _At least we're keeping him under pressure so he can't finish anyone off after he takes them down; we can't beat him, but I'll be ecstatic if we all just end up getting out of this fight alive_. The genin slipped into position, grateful that his allies were at least keeping their enemy too occupied to notice him. _Right, looks like it's my turn_. "Suiton: Water –" Something slammed into the back of the boy's head, sending him sprawling down to the forest floor, and Masaru was shocked to see another Itachi standing over him. _When did he create a shadow clone? It must have been after he launched that fireball; I guess he anticipated my actions as well._

Naruto and Tenten both saw that Masaru was in danger, and the girl immediately sent another volley of ranged weapons in Itachi's direction, while Naruto decided to risk using a Vacuum Bullet and hoped Itachi wasn't about to use a fire jutsu to counter his wind attack. Tenten aimed her kunai not at Itachi but at the area around him, forcing the clone to remain in position while the Vacuum Bullet struck home. The real Itachi could have used his sharingan to dodge the attack, or simply accepted a minor scratch from one of the kunai, but a fragile shadow clone had neither of those options.

Unfortunately for the pair of Konoha genin, taking their attention off the real Itachi for a split second while they saved their comrade was a dangerous thing to do. Itachi was quick to exploit the opportunity they presented him with, slamming a kick into the boy's chest that sent him flying back to collide with his partner, leaving the two in a bruised and battered tangle of limbs. Like the others, they were not seriously injured, but would need a couple seconds to recover.

That last exchange left Maeko as the only member of both teams that had not been temporarily incapacitated. The girl found herself almost paralyzed with fear as the deadly Uchiha rogue turned his full attention to her and she realized that for the next couple seconds this would be a one-on-one fight. _Ohshitohshitohshit! _The girl watched in horror as Itachi drew out a single kunai and with a casual flick of his wrist, sent the knife straight at her head. The rational part of her mind was screaming at her to dodge the attack, but the girl remained frozen in place, watching as the weapon seemed to move towards her in slow motion, moving closer and closer to her head.

The weapon slammed into flesh and Maeko tumbled to the ground as blood spattered the trees of the Forest of Death.

* * *

Temari swung her fan in a wide arc, unleashing another blast of her Wind Scythe jutsu at her opponent. Kankuro followed up by sending Crow flying towards their enemy, with Gaara's sand following in the puppets wake.

The blast of cutting wind dispersed moments later as the long, thick, sword-like object covered in white bandages that their opponent wielded sliced through the jutsu and scattered the hurricane into a dozen light breezes. The strange, shark-like man sidestepped Crow's approach and cut through the chakra threads connecting the puppet to its owner, causing Crow to tumble limply to the ground. The man then blocked Gaara's sand attack with his weapon; shortly after coming into contact with the strange sword, the sand fell to the ground, drained of the chakra that powered it.

"My, my, you kids really are quite talented." The blue-skinned man, dressed in unusual black robes with red clouds on them, declared while grinning at the trio of Suna ninjas with a mouth full of sharpened teeth. "I expected the One Tails jinchuriki to be a bit of a challenge, but his teammates are quite skilled as well, especially for how young you are. I think I'm starting to get a little excited about this fight. And to think, I was afraid this assignment was going to be a boring one; now I've got a fun fight, and even if I have to hold back a little with the jinchuriki I still get to kill two of my opponents, so that makes up for it."

"Who the hell are you anyway?!" Kankuro demanded.

"Oh, that's right. I never got a chance to introduce myself, did I?" The shark-like rogue ninja grinned. "How very rude of me. I'm Kisame Hoshigaki, former member of the Seven Ninja Swordmen of Kirigakure; I know the three of you are Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro. There, now we all know each other. It's only proper that you know the name of the man who's going to kill you."

Team Seven remained on the sidelines, watching the battle between the three Suna genin and the oddly garbed man who was apparently an extremely dangerous rogue ninja from Kiri. "Um, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura began hesitantly. "Do … do you think maybe we should help them? I mean, this person is a rogue ninja, a criminal, so he's obviously not supposed to be here. Isn't it our job to stop rogue ninjas when they sneak into Konoha? That has to be more important than the fact that we're on opposite sides of the exam." Sakura nodded, feeling more confident in her conclusion after she had explained her reasoning. "Yes, they're in trouble, they need help or else that guy is going to kill them. We need to help them."

"Why?" Sasuke asked coolly.

"Wh-what?" For a moment, Sakura thought she must have misheard Sasuke.

"Why should we help them?" Sasuke asked as he watched the battle with calm detachment. "He's after the Suna team, there's no reason for us to get involved. He's attacking people who, assuming your information was accurate, Sakura, would have happily killed us all if we lost our battle against them. Rogue ninja or not, it is entirely possible that he just saved your life. There's no reason for us to get involved in this fight."

"If shark-guy wins he'll probably leave the scroll behind, I doubt that's what he came here for." Akane added thoughtfully. "And even if he loses, I'm pretty sure the Sand team is going to get worn down in the process, which means we'll have an easier time finishing them off." _Or more like any chance at all of beating them. Even if Sasuke-kun can handle Gaara, I doubt Sakura and I could stand up to his teammates._ "I mean, Sakura's got a point about how capturing a rogue ninja is more important than carrying on with the exam, but even if we do want to get involved it makes more sense for us to just sit back for a bit and let them soften each other up first. It's not like the Suna team is friends of ours; there's no guarantee they'll even fight alongside us instead of turning it into a three-way fight."

"Damn brats." While Kankuro remained focused on his opponent, because he was a puppeteer his actual body was far enough away from the battle that he could overhear Team Seven's debate. "Hey!" The puppet master called out to the Konoha genin. "This guy we're fighting is pretty tough, so if it'll convince you to lend a hand I'll promise we won't try to kill you guys during the fight or even after it's over." _If I'd known we were gonna run into someone like this shark guy I'd have tried to get Gaara to take those Kumo girls up on their offer, especially since they were pretty cute anyway.  
_

"You're not the team leader." Sasuke shot back. "A promise from you is worthless."

"Dammit." Kankuro growled, and reluctantly turned to his younger brother. "Hey, Gaara! Tell those brats we won't kill them if they help us deal with fish-face."

Gaara remained silent for several seconds, and then at last answered. "Fine, but it's a strictly temporary arrangement." Gaara's attention shifted to Sasuke as he regarded the boy with a gaze of unnerving intensity "You're still my prey."

"That's fine." Sasuke shot a tight smile in the Suna jinchuriki's direction. "I was planning to fight you sometime anyway." The Uchiha smirked, and then added. "However, if you want us to put out lives on the line helping you I'm gonna need more than just a promise not to attack us. Unless you give us your scroll we're not doing anything."

"Sasuke!" Sakura looked at the boy in shock, stunned that he would take advantage of the situation to extort an exam scroll of the other team. "How can you say something like that? They need our help!"

Sasuke looked at his teammate with a mixture of curiosity and surprise. "If some weird rogue ninja wants to show up out of nowhere and attack these guys, it's really not anything we need to get involved with." Sasuke declared, his attention still focused on Sakura. "Sure, he's a rogue, but we don't even know if he's an enemy of our village, and Kiri's not a formal ally of ours yet even if negotiations for an alliance are underway, so as far as I can tell it's really nothing that we, as Konoha ninjas, need to get involved in. Ninjas don't go around saving people for the fun of it, we do jobs to accomplish our goals and get paid." Sasuke smirked at the imperiled Suna team. "Right now I don't see any reason to believe that Konoha's vital interests are stake, which means that if you want our help you have to pay us, and right now the fee is one scroll."

Sakura regarded the boy she harbored a long-standing crush on in shock. She had to admit that his position made a certain kind of sense; exploiting the Suna team's vulnerability was exactly the sort of cold, hard, self-interested logic instructors like Mizuki had taught them at the Academy. Ninja were tools that existed to promote the interests of their village and the country that hosted it. Quite possibly, Sasuke was right that Konoha had no stake in this battle, and without some manner of compensation there was no logical reason to put their lives at risk. Ninja fought to accomplish a specific, narrow goal defined by their superiors or their clients, and right now Team 7's goal was to pass the Chunin Exam. Sasuke's decision to do so in the most expedient way possible made perfect sense.

Sakura knew all of this, and on an intellectual level she knew that Sasuke was right. However, her heart told her that the boy she was certain she was in love with was horribly wrong; when people were in trouble you were supposed to help them instead of finding a way to turn it to your advantage. The Sasuke Uchiha that Sakura was in love with would have immediately leapt into the fray to defend the endangered Suna ninjas, not because it secured some kind of tactical advantage but because it was the right thing to do. Not for the first time since she had developed her crush on the boy Sakura wondered if the Sasuke Uchiha she was in love with was the same person as the Sasuke Uchiha that was on her team.

Sakura gave a quick shake of her head, dismissing the blasphemous thought as soon as it occurred to her. _He's just looking out for me, that's all. He doesn't want to risk us getting injured and being vulnerable to the other teams afterwards. Besides, the Suna team should be grateful that we're helping them, so I guess giving us their scroll as thanks is only fair_. _I should be more appreciative of the things Sasuke does for me._ "You're right, Sasuke-kun. I'm sorry; I shouldn't have disagreed with you like that. I … I'm really sorry. I won't do it again. I'm sorry." A small part of Sakura wondered why the words tasted like ash in her mouth.

Sasuke's gaze briefly flicked in Sakura's direction, and the enamored girl was devastated when she saw thinly veiled contempt in the boy's eyes. This prompted Sakura to mumble more apologies for disagreeing with him while looking more and more miserable, which only seemed to increase the Uchiha's annoyance with her.

"We're not having that much trouble." Temari snapped, forcing Sakura to refocus her attention away from her self-inflicted misery as her mind returned to the broader situation. "This guy's strong enough that we won't turn down any help, but we're not going to give up our scroll just to get a bit of help; you guys aren't that good anyway." The Suna kunoichi snapped her fan at the shark-like Kiri rogue, who once more sliced his blade though the wind jutsu Temari conjured, dispersing it.

"Darn, I was hoping the other kids would jump in." Kisame seemed rather disappointed by the fact that he would only be facing three-on-one odds. "This fight would be so much more fun if more people got involved."

"Don't get too disappointed; it looks like the Uchiha reputation is overrated anyway." Temari scowled at the boy in question and decided to make an effort to goad him into fighting. "After how much we've heard about the so-called genius clan with one of the most powerful kekkei genkai in the world, I certainly was expecting something better than a whining, self-interested coward."

"Uchiha? I thought Itachi-san killed all of them." Kisame paused for a moment to regard the dark-haired boy, and after a moment he gave a wide, sharp-toothed smile. "You know, I thought there was something about him that looked familiar, but I guess I didn't recognize the family resemblance since he doesn't have a sharingan." Kisame grinned as he saw Sasuke, quivering with barely suppressed emotion, activate his family's famous kekkei genkai. "Ah, yes, there it is." The shark-like man grinned. "My my, there is quite a bit of family resemblance now. You do look just like a miniature Itachi, don't you?"

"What the hell do you know about Itachi?!" Sasuke was literally shaking with rage; only his shock and keenly honed survival instincts prevented him from charging forward and screaming his question into Kisame's face.

"I know Itachi-san is much politer than you are." Kisame grumbled, frowning at the Uchiha boy disapprovingly. "In all the years I've known him he's never even raised his voice at me, but you go and start yelling at me five minutes after we meet for the very first time." Kisame smirked and added. "Then again, I suppose after Itachi-san killed your family you didn't have anyone to teach you proper manners, did you?"

"You fucking asshole! Where the fuck is Itachi!" Sasuke screeched at the Kiri rogue, a wild look in his eyes. Sakura and Akane both stared at the boy in shock; in all the time they had known him, neither had ever seen Sasuke in a state like this. Sasuke was always cool, calm, collected, and firmly control; the most emotion either had ever seen out of the boy before was a sort of contemptuous indifference he often displayed when they or another girl made a particular strenuous effort to gain his affections. Now, however, the boy was shaking in rage and looked as though he was seconds away from completely exploding.

_He … he's like a completely different person. I've never seen Sasuke-kun act like this before_. "Sasuke-kun." Akane hesitantly approached the Uchiha boy. "You need to calm down, he's trying to provoke you. Don't fall for his bait, Sasuke-kun" Sasuke did not respond to the girl in any way, his attention still fixed upon Kisame. The girl placed a hand on Sasuke's should and gently squeezed, but he continued to ignore her.

"Well, if you really want to know where Itachi-san is." Kisame drawled, regarding the enraged boy with an amused smirk. "I suppose there's no harm in telling you. He's over that way," Kisame waved his hand a vaguely northeasterly direction. "He has his own little mission to take care of. If you find him fast enough maybe he can teach you some manners; I'd do it myself, but that's really the sort of thing family ought to take care of. It wouldn't be proper for me to get involved in the relationship between you and your big brother, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke immediately turned to rush in the direction Kisame indicated, but frowned when he realized something was restraining him. Turning a furious glare on Akane, who had wrapped both her arms around one of his in an effort to hold him back, the boy snarled at his teammate. "Akane, let go of me."

"No Sasuke-kun." The girl met his glare with resolute determination, and her grip remained firm. "You're no match for Itachi, not yet, and I care too much about you to let you go running off to get yourself killed–"

"I said let go!" The boy roared, bringing up his free arm and slamming his fist into the girl's face. Akane stumbled back and fell to the ground, blood streaming out of her now crooked nose as she looked up at the boy in shock. Sakura's expression mirrored Akane's, while Temari glared at the boy in disapproval and Kankuro muttered, "Attacking his own teammates just for getting in his way, no wonder Gaara likes him so much." Ignoring everyone else, the Uchiha boy turned his back on the girl he had just assaulted and rushed off towards Itachi.

_I can't believe Sasuke-kun would do something like that!_ Sakura shook her head, and at Sasuke's rapidly disappearing form. As she watched the Uchiha depart, Sakura's worried gaze gradually shifted to an angry glare as her shock at the boy's actions faded. In that moment Sakura Haruno made a decision, and Sasuke Uchiha Fan Club lost one of its more dedicated members. Turning her attention to her teammate, Sakura knelt down next to other girl. "Akane, are you alright?"

"I'll live." The other girl answered, slowly picking herself up off the ground and wiping a mixture of blood and tears off of her face. With a grimace, the girl grabbed her broken nose and wrenched it back into place, letting out a yelp of pain as a few tears sprang involuntarily to her eyes. After a couple seconds, the worst of the other girl's pain seemed to pass and she turned to regard Sakura with curious eyes. "So now that Sasuke's gone are we going to help fight the fish guy, or do we go after him?"

Sakura could tell that the girl was trying to put on a tough front, trying to focus on the mission so that she would not have to think about what had just happened._ On the day we became ninjas Kakashi-sensei told us that a ninja who doesn't support their comrades is worse than scum. What would he say about a ninja who attacks one of his teammates, then abandons them?_ "Sasuke can take care of himself." Sakura announced coldly, shooting a glare in the direction of their vanished teammate. "We'll help these Suna ninjas deal with this rogue ninja."

"Two more kids to play with?" Kisame grinned at the girls at tightened his grip on his strange weapon. "I think I'm starting to get really excited about this fight. It's a pity I didn't get to fight the sharingan, but I suppose it would be rude to interfere in Itachi-san's family business."

Sakura pulled out several shuriken and hurled them at Kisame. Moments later Akane's hands shot through a series of seals, and Kisame saw the number of shuriken quadruple. Not about to be outdone, Temari used her fan to send another wind scythe jutsu at the shark man, catching the throwing stars in the momentum of wind blast to increase their speed and supplement her own purely chakra-based attack. Kisame grinned and brought his sword up in a block to disperse the wind attack as well as stopping most of the shuriken, but one got past the Kiri rogue's defenses to put a minor scratch on his cheek.

"You cut my face…" Kisame regarded the cluster of genin in annoyance, wiping a finger across the small scratch and regarding the small amount of blood the tiny wound had produced. Thinking the Kiri rogue was distracted by his minor injury, Kankuro sent Crow forward, firing off a barrage of poisoned needles and slashing out with poisoned blades hidden in a dozen different locations on the puppet. Kisame parried the attacks with contemptuous ease, and then slammed his blade into Crow, shattering the puppet into a dozen pieces. "I hate it when people hit me in the face." Kisame announced affably. "It makes me angry. And I was just starting to have fun too…"

"Sand Coffin." Gaara announced emotionlessly; sand leapt up from the ground and covered Kisame, encasing the man and his sword almost completely, though Kisame's face was still exposed. "I could just cover your mouth and suffocate you to death, but that would just be a pitiful way to die, so I'll kill you quickly." The Suna jinchuriki extended an arm towards Kisame, and slowly clenched his fist. "Sand Burial."

Much to Gaara's surprise, his sand did not instantly crush the shark-like man and splatter his blood across the forest; instead, the sand coffin that covered Kisame slowly fell apart, until the Kiri rogue was completely free once more. "Disappointed?" Kisame grinned at the Suna jinchuriki. "Sneaking your sand around my feet while everyone else kept me busy was a sneaky idea, but you didn't realize that my Samehada eats people's chakra. You move your sand around by infusing it with your chakra so all Samehada had to do was absorb the chakra in your sand to render it powerless." The sword suddenly twitched and emitted a strange sound, causing Kisame's tooth-filled grin to widen. "Samehada doesn't like the taste of your chakra; it tastes too much like sand."

Akane made the next move rushing towards Kisame in a straightforward attack that looked all but suicidal. However, each slice of Kisame's blade missed the girl a foot or so, and the girl finally found an opening in the Kiri rogue's defenses and slammed a punch right into the man's cut cheek. Kisame blinked in surprise and then brought Samehada around in a sweeping blow that slammed into the girl's chest. As the blow struck the girl part of the bandage covering his blade came off, revealing a viciously scaled blade that ripped off layers of Akane's flesh.

"Again with the face." Kisame grumbled. "What is it with you kids and hitting me in the face?" Turning to his downed opponent, Kisame added. "Your illusion was clever though, I didn't even realize I was aiming at the wrong place until you hit me, but you should have realized that hitting someone would cause enough pain to disrupt your genjutsu." Kisame frowned as he realized that the girl was in no condition to hear or acknowledge his compliment of her skills, then shrugged and got back to the dealing with the rest of his opponents.

Sakura rushed to her teammate's side, gasping at the horrific injuries Kisame's strange weapon had inflicted on Akane. _She's losing a lot of blood, and he probably broke her ribs and caused some internal bleeding as well. I can't do much for her, but I have to at least slow the bleeding down some or she'll die for sure_. Sakura dug into her pouch of ninja tools and began desperately applying bandages to her downed teammate's shattered body.

Kisame blocked several more wind scythe attacks from Temari, continuing to have little difficulty dispersing the girl's ninjutsu by simply having Samehada absorb the chakra used to attack him. Just when the Kiri rogue was starting to get annoyed by the girl stubbornly continuing to attack him when she should have realized that it would never work, he noticed how much sand her wind-based attacks were kicking up, and noticed a look on unusual concentration on Gaara's face. Kisame swung Samehada in wide circle around his body, and the sand that had been hanging in the air around him fell to the ground, drained of the chakra that powered it.

The next attack came from behind, as several of the shattered puppet's limbs suddenly sprang back to life and shot towards Kisame with hidden blades extended. The mist rogue dodged some of the attacks and parried others, and gradually broke every single component of Crow that Kankuro used to attack him. When the only thing left was Crow's head, which had a blade extended from its mouth, Kankuro grabbed the head by it's hair, removed Kankuro's chakra threads, and with a smirk pitched the puppet's head back at its master. Kankuro groaned in pain as Crow's blade plunged into his right arm, though the small part of his mind that was not consumed with contemplating how painful his injury was took the time to be appropriately grateful for the fact that the blade did not hit any major blood vessels and was not one of Crow's poisoned weapons.

Temari leapt up into the trees as Kisame approached her; the wind user had all but exhausted her chakra reserves trying to land a hit on the dangerous Kiri rogue, and she was far too canny to risk getting into a close-range fight with the sword wielder; the best thing she could do for now was try to stay alive. Kisame considered pursuing the girl, but that would mean turning away from Gaara, and Kisame was not about to ignore his original mission orders. "Looks like it's just you and me now, Gaara-kun."

"No, it's just me." A deadly blast of sand shot at Kisame with enough power to rip the shark-man's flesh from his bones, only for Kisame to counter the attack by spitting out a massive shark made completely of water that met the sand blast halfway, reducing it to a mass of mud. Before Gaara's sand could compress itself to wring out the water weighing it down Kisame slashed out several times with Samehada, stealing the sand's chakra away so that it collapsed to the ground as an inert pile of mud.

Kisame grinned, closed the remaining distance to Gaara in the blink of an eye, and lashed out with his blade. The attack came to a halt inches away from Gaara as a barrier of sand interposed itself between Samehada and the Suna jinchuriki, but when Kisame withdrew his blade some of the sand tumbled to the ground, drained of its chakra by Kisame's blade. Kisame unleashed a flurry of blows at Gaara, slowly chipping away at the boy's defenses as each blow drained more chakra from Gaara's automatic defenses. Each time Kisame struck less and less sand rose up to block his blade, and finally Samehada just blasted through the weakened barrier and slammed into Gaara himself.

Gaara staggered backwards from the force of the blow, large chunks of sand falling off his body as Samehada stole away the chakra that powered his sand armor. When Kisame's next blow came in Gaara tried to dodge, but dodging was a skill the Suna jinchuriki had never truly developed. After all, when he had automatic defenses that had, up until this point, been utterly unbreakable Gaara had never seen much reason to learn how to dodge attacks that would never hit him anyway. The blade raked along Gaara's chest, ripping away chunks of his sand armor and cutting into the flesh beneath it.

Gaara stumbled back and fell down into a sitting position, his back resting against one of the many trees that populated the Forest of Death. _This feeling … this is pain, isn't it? I think this is what pain feels like. And … what's this feeling on my chest? It's warm and kind of sticky … is that blood? Who's blood is it?_ The wounded jinchuriki finally put all the facts together, horrified by his conclusion. "It's my blood!" The boy shrieked. "It's my blood!"

Gaara tried to bring his sand to bear to attack Kisame once more but, to the boy's shock the sand refused to heed his call. In the course of his battle with Kisame Gaara had lost too much of his chakra to Samehada, and now there was nothing left to defend himself with. Terror crashed down upon the young jinchuriki as he realized that, for the first time in his life, he was truly in mortal peril. His absolute defense lay shattered and his chakra reserves were exhausted; if Kisame wanted to kill him there was nothing Gaara could do to stop him. He was helpless.

"Now then." Kisame grinned down at the beaten jinchuriki. "Itachi-san did say I was only supposed to evaluate your abilities since there's no point in capturing you just yet, and killing you would cause all kinds of problems for our plans. Still, Akatsuki is going to want to capture you eventually…" The man grinned and hefted his massive blade, positioning it over the downed boy's legs, and then raising the blade over his head as a prelude to chopping down. "So, I think I'll just cut off your legs; that way when the time comes to capture you I won't have to worry about you running away."

* * *

**A/N:** I was going to do the entire fight in one chapter, but I decided to split it in two since otherwise the chapter would have wound up going on way too long. Of course, the fact that by ending the chapter mid-battle on a double cliffhanger (after ending the last chapter on a cliffhanger as well) makes me feel rather sorry for my readers, so I will promise that the next chapter will finish up the fight and resolve itself in a non-cliffhanger fashion.


	16. Bonds that Define

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Naruto

* * *

_I … I'm not dead?_ Maeko hesitantly opened her eyes, which she had closed moments before Itachi's kunai would have buried itself in her skull, unwilling to watch the inevitable approach of her own death. Itachi had thrown his kunai perfectly at her head; there was no way he could have missed, and she knew she had not dodged the weapon. Maeko had heard the distinctive sounds of the kunai sinking into flesh, and had almost managed to convince herself that she could feel the kunai sticking out of her head while blood and brain fluid leaked down across her face. However, when the girl tentatively reached up to check her forehead instead of letting fear cloud her perceptions, it did not take her long to confirm that there was not a kunai buried in her skull. _How? What happened? Why didn't I die?_ That was when the girl saw the khaki-clad figure standing in front of her, his body placed between the girl and Itachi. "Neji?" The girl gasped in shock. "You saved me?"

"Worthless loser." The Hyuuga glared down at the girl, a slight tremble in his normally stiff posture. "You're always … getting in … my way." One of Neji's legs caved in under the boy, and as he fell to one knee Maeko saw the handle of Itachi's kunai protruding from his back; even with the knife still firmly in place blood was streaming out of the wound. "If I hadn't had to waste my time saving you I never would have…"

"Well why did you save me then!" Maeko shouted at the boy, wondering why his action infuriated her so much. "I never asked for your help! We hate each other! Who the fuck asked you to take a hit for me?"

"I don't even know why I even bothered." Neji groaned, down on one knee as his body struggled to maintain consciousness. "I guess I thought I'd have time to knock you clear and not get hit myself, but it looks like I was wrong. Should've just let you die instead, loser. I can't believe it was my destiny to die saving … your worthless …" The boy's other leg gave out and he collapsed face down in the dirt, while Maeko stared at her teammate in paralyzed shock.

Seeing Neji's fall, the members of Naruto's team redoubled their attack on Itachi, hoping to at least inflict some sort of injury upon the Uchiha rogue before he took advantage of the fact that one of their best fighters was down. Meanwhile, Masaru, still wobbling uncertainly on his feet after the blow he had taken to the head, rushed to his teammates' side and began frantically trying to slow Neji's blood loss. "Masaru-kun…" Maeko began hesitantly, looking down at her wounded teammate. "Is Neji going to be alright?"

"He's losing a lot of blood." Masaru answered tersely, not willing to divert his attention from the wounded Hyuuga to deal with his other teammate, especially since his vision had gone a bit fuzzy and he was having trouble making out some of the details of Neji's wound. "The blade hit in his shoulder so we don't have to worry too much about damage to any vital organs, but from how much blood he's losing I think it nicked a vein."

"Couldn't you just, like, put a tourniquet on it or something to stop it from bleeding?" Maeko vaguely remembered hearing something about that during one of their lessons on field medicine. "Isn't that what you're supposed to do when somebody's losing too much blood?"

"Sure, I could do that if I was a complete idiot, or if I wanted Neji to lose his arm." Masaru snapped, taking out his fear and frustration on his teammate. The fact that he had a horrendous headache from the hit he had taken to the head did nothing to improve the normally easygoing boy's mood. _From the way this is going, if I can't get Neji's blood loess under control fast it might come down to using a tourniquet; it's going to be a while before we can get him proper medical care, and alive with one arm is better than dead_.

"Hey, I was trying to help!" Maeko shot back defensively.

"Key word there, trying." Masaru glared at her; for some reason even the boy himself did not entirely understand he was utterly fed up with the girl. "That's all you ever do; you just screw things up and put me and Neji in danger. Did you even bother to pay attention when we were getting lessons in field medicine, or was that just another subject you never bothered with because you thought you were too good for it?" Masaru scoffed and applied a bandage to Neji's back, muttering under his breath. "I figured it was only a matter of time before she got one of us killed."

Maeko went silent, her gaze alternating between watching over her teammates and keeping an eye on the ongoing clash between Naruto's team and Itachi. For a while, it looked like the jinchuriki and his companions might actually manage a victory. Naruto's attacks were coming in almost perfect tandem with Tenten's thrown kunai; their excellent coordination a testament to the endless hours the two friends had spent practicing together. Naruto's concentrated on launching an all-out assault on Itachi, backed by the power of the Nine Tailed Fox, wasting no time defending himself; every time Itachi saw a gap in Naruto's defenses the Uchiha rogue's sharingan warned him that attempting to exploit it would put him in the path of one of the bun-haired girl's weapons.

The Uchiha rogue was duly impressed with the duo's exemplary teamwork, but it was the third member of the team that was now the focus of Itachi's attention. The distinctive hairstyle and atrocious fashion had been immediately familiar to Itachi, and early in the fight Lee had conformed to Itachi's expectations by acting exactly like the jonin that was very obviously his mentor. While the boy was certainly a respectable opponent, Itachi had initially dismissed him as a relatively minor threat; the Uchiha was more concerned with the jinchuriki and Naruto's partner than a genin who merely seemed to be capable of reproducing a Gai's taijutsu style with a fraction of the jonin's deadly skill and experience.

Underestimating Rock Lee was a mistake that cost Itachi when Lee opened all five of his inner gates and became a dozen times faster and stronger than he had been before. With his attention focused on Naruto, Itachi did not notice Lee's incoming attack until it was too late to block or dodge, though the experienced rogue ninja was still able to roll with the blow and avoid any serious damage. Lee had followed up on the attack almost immediately, and for the first time in the fight Itachi found himself facing a true challenge of his taijutsu skills.

_Impressive skill from one so young; without the sharingan I would be hard pressed to keep up with him._ "I underestimated you, Lee-kun." Itachi informed the boy as he blocked and dodged his way through the incredible barrage of attacks the boy unleashed. "I never expected a mere genin to be capable of unlocking five of his inner gates; it is an accomplishment you should be quite proud of." Naruto rushed Itachi's flank and shot a kick at the Uchiha's head; while Itachi dodged the attack and the kunai Tenten hurled to back the boy up, the brief distraction from Lee allowed the boy to score a glancing blow on Itachi's shoulder.

However, while Lee's assault managed to score a few minor successes, especially with Tenten and Naruto continuing to strike at Itachi's flanks at critical moments, using the inner gates was dangerous and incredibly draining. A little more than a minute after Lee first opened the gates his attacks began to lose some of their incredible speed and power as the toll pushing his body so far beyond its natural limits began to catch up with the boy. Using the gates had been a move born of desperation; Lee had been aware of the fact that unless he critically injured Itachi before the side effects of the inner gates caught up with him he would be in a very vulnerable position. Considering Itachi's skill, Lee had not been optimistic about his chances of seriously injuring the rogue ninja even with five gates open, but with Neji down Lee felt he had no other choice. As the power that had filled his body just moments ago faded away and wracking pain took its place, Lee knew that he had run out of time.

The boy used the last reserves of his strength to jump clear of the fight so his friends would not have the burden with protecting him in his weakened state. While landing a single solid hit and a few glancing blows on a ninja of Itachi's caliber was an incredible accomplishment for any genin, Lee knew it had not been enough to turn the tide of the horrendously lopsided battle. _Naruto-kun, Tenten-san; I have failed you._ Determined to do something useful, the exhausted boy painfully made his way over to the other genin team. "Masaru-kun, allow me to take over Neji-kun's medical care. I will be of no more use in this battle, but you could still…"

"No, I'm out of it too." The boy cut Lee off irritably. "Ever since I took that hit to the head I've been getting dizzy if I move my head too much; it's bad enough that if I tried to fight I'd just end up getting in the way. Just help me take care of Neji; I'm having a bit of trouble seeing what I need to do to slow down the bleeding." _I'd let Maeko help, but she'd probably just end up making things worse. Damn, my head really hurts; that Itachi guy hits hard._

_Masaru-kun said he was hit in the head, and he is also dizzy and having trouble seeing, not to mention quite a bit more short-tempered than usual__. If Itachi's attack caused a concussion that would explain Masaru-kun's symptoms, and if he has a concussion then he will not be able to help Naruto and Tenten with their battle. We have already lost three of our fighters, if there is to be any hope of victory we can not afford to leave Naruto and Tenten on their own_. "Maeko-san, please do what you can to assist Naruto-kun and Tenten-san." Lee was reluctant to send the girl into a battle where she was hopelessly outclassed, but any help he could give his two friends was better than none.

"You're sending in Maeko?" Masaru scoffed and shot the girl a contemptuous glare as another lance of blinding pain shot through his skull. "Don't count on her being any help. Neji was right about her; she's a useless loser, and that's all she's ever going to be."

"Masaru." Maeko's voice had a peculiar emotionless quality to it, as though something within her had broken. "We have to get Neji to medical attention as soon as possible to save his life. I have to do whatever I can to save his life; he would not have been injured if he hadn't put himself in danger to protect me. You're right, I have been useless, a burden on both of you. It was stupid of me; I let my personal feelings get in the way of my duty to my comrades…"

The girl trailed off as she looked at both her injured teammates, a strange expression on her face; after taking a few moments to gather herself, she continued. "I've always been a burden on both of you. I never really did my part as a member of our team, but the two of you always protected me." The girl hesitated for a moment, raising a hand to trace along the vicious scar that marred her face. "I hated both of you for protecting me, for reminding me of how useless I was. But … no matter how much of a bitch I was to both of you, you and Neji were still there for me every time." The girl gave a mirthless chuckle and glanced down at their wounded teammate. "It's funny, Neji always said our destiny was determined at birth, and I always said he was wrong, but now … it looks like he was right after all. Nobody ever gets to escape from their destiny; our fates really are determined before we're even born. Maybe it's time I stopped trying to fight mine."

With Lee and Neji out of commission and Masaru making no move to rejoin the fight, Naruto and Tenten found themselves up against Itachi with no hope of support from the rest of the teammates. At first the two continued to use their earlier tactics where Tenten backed Naruto up with throwing weapons, but with nobody else engaging Itachi in melee the boy was badly outmatched even with Tenten's help. It hadn't taken Itachi long to land a solid kick that sent the young jinchuriki to the ground, and when that happened Tenten had to close into melee range to give her friend enough time to recover from the attack and get back up. Once Naruto recovered Tenten attempted to fall back and return to fighting Itachi from long range, but so far she hadn't been able to disengage from her opponent. Every time she tried to withdraw the Uchiha rogue followed her, forcing her to remain in close combat. While Tenten was a solid hand-to-hand fighter, she was much better with her throwing weapons, and in a fight against an opponent of Itachi's level fighting with her second-best skill was a disadvantage in a fight where she could hardly afford one.

_Damn, we've gotta find some way to change things up__ 'cause so far we've been getting out asses kicked._ Naruto grimaced as he aimed a kick at Itachi's head, only to see it swatted aside with contemptuous ease. _Tenten-chan and I are both better at mid-range than up-close taijutsu, but there's no way for either of us to get enough space to switch this to a ranged fight. I've got a couple a wind jutsu that could work, but since Itachi is a fire user I'd have to get the timing absolutely perfect or else he'll end up roasting me when I end up making his fire jutsu even stronger. If Tenten-chan and I could just get some breathing room we could try out that combo attack we came up with, plus I'd be able to send in a bunch of clones to clear out all the traps that keep us from running away. The thing is, we'd need a couple seconds to do all that, and there's no way Itachi's gonna let us have that kind of time. It looks like my only option is to use more of the Fox's chakra; I can only control this much while being completely safe, but going a little over my limits shouldn't be too danger, and taking a risk with the Fox beats losing and having us all end up dead for sure._

Naruto was so focused on the fight with Itachi and his own desperate attempts to find a way to prevent the rogue from winning that it took him a couple seconds to notice that the ground he was fighting on had suddenly become rather muddy. When the boy was able to spare a brief moment to look down at his feet he discovered, much to his own shock, that the ground around the three battling ninjas was covered in about half an inch of water, although there two relatively dry patches centered around himself and Tenten. _A water jutsu? Is it something Masaru's up to? I don't think Itachi's gonna get thrown off his game by a little mud, so maybe he's trying to set something up..._

Naruto quickly sidestepped to get a better view of the rest of his allies, taking care to keep his feet on his patch of relatively dry land. _Masaru left that dry area around me for a reason when he used that water jutsu, so I probably oughta stay here just to be safe._ Once the boy finally got a clear view of his other allies, Naruto saw that Masaru had not been responsible for the water jutsu; he and Lee were still busy tending to the wounded Hyuuga boy. Instead, he saw Maeko crouched down at the edge of the newly formed puddle, moving one of her hands through a strange set of motions. _Those look kinda like seals, but how could she be doing them with one hand?_

Maeko finished doing whatever she had been doing, and then slapped her hand into the water. "Raiton: Lightning Flash" A burst of electricity shot out of the blue-haired girl's fingers, spreading throughout the water that coated the ground. Itachi's feet were still in the water when the attack struck, and electricity surged up the rogue ninja's legs.

Then the shadow clone Itachi left behind dispelled.

"Your water jutsu was too obvious." The real Itachi announced from his position up in one of the trees. "Though I must admit, I am impressed that someone your age already commands two chakra natures. I wonder … is your family name Kimura?" When Maeko visibly twitched at the mention of her surname Itachi gave a slight nod. "I suspected as much, command of those two particular elements and your ability to use one-handed seals made it all but certain. So, it seems that kekkei genkai got passed down after all..."

Maeko gave no verbal response, but instead brought her hands together and performed three quick seals before calling out her next jutsu. "Ranton: Homing Laser!" A beam of crackling energy shot out of the girl's hands towards Itachi. When the Uchiha rogue dodged the attack, the column of energy flowed around to come at him for another pass, but at the last possible second Itachi shifted out of the way, and the beam was unable to reverse course before it slammed into a tree, blasting off a respectable chunk of the tree's bark when it struck.

"Holy crap!" Naruto stared at Maeko in surprise as he put all the facts together. "She's got the ranton kekkei genkai!"

"The what?" Tenten's eyes flicked back and forth between Naruto and the girl in question, trying to figure out what was going on. _Maeko has a kekkei genkai?_

"Tenten-chan, we've got a bit of space to work with, so let's smack Itachi with that new jutsu we came up with. I'll explain while we're setting it up." Tenten began digging through her pouch of ninja tools to find two particular sealing scrolls, cursing under her breath when she discovered that the fight with Itachi had left her pouch a disorganized mess. While she was busy with that, Naruto created a small army of clones. Most of the clones ran off in the rough direction of the gate where Team Gai had entered the Forest, while four clones took positions in a diamond formation around Tenten. "I'm sending the other guys to go clear out the traps." Naruto informed the girl before he dove into an explanation of Maeko's strange new abilities. "Anyway, ranton is a combination style kekkei genkai, where you take two different elements and merge them together into a new one. You probably already figured it out, but ranton is lightning and water; in a fight it's mostly used for things like the laser beams she's using, but people who are really good with it are supposed to be able to do other stuff like weather control too."

"Alright, so she can combine two different elements to make a new one. What I don't understand how she got so good at it." Tenten frowned at the other girl, who was continuing to fire off her strange blasts of energy at Itachi. "I mean, she was never that good at ninjutsu in the Academy, so how did she master two chakra natures and the combined nature, plus learn a bunch of different jutsu? And how can she do a ration justsu with one hand? I thought all seals needed two hands!"

"The ability to do one-handed seals with her two basic elements is part of how the Kekkei Genkai works; doing a ranton jutsu involves using one hand to do suiton and one to do ration, and then combining the two into a ranton." A hint of annoyance passed over Naruto's face as he added. "Her kekkei genkai also means she doesn't have to train to do nature manipulation or learn how to perform most jutsus; people with a combination kekkei genkai just have a natural understanding of how to use all of their elements. They still have to train to refine their skills and work out the advanced techniques, but they can do lot of their techniques just by pure instinct." _In other words, someone with an active combination kekkei genkai hardly has to do any work to obtain jonin-level ninjutsu skills, while I had to work my ass off just to learn how to use one element._

Naruto frowned and looked at Maeko thoughtfully. "What's weird is, it's not a kekkei genkai Konoha has, or at least I've never heard of it being in Konoha before. I mean, I found out a fair bit about kekkei genkai between all that research I did on the First Hokage's writings and hanging out in Kiri with the rebels there, and the only clans known to have ranton kekkei genkai are in Kumo and Kiri. There's only one guy with ranton left in Kiri though; Yagura did a number on them, and would've gotten that guy if our team hadn't shown up. The thing is, Maeko's not even from a ninja clan, so how'd she get a kekkei genkai, especially one that's not from Konoha?"

"Well, if you really want to know then ask her after the fight's done." Tenten finally found the pair of scrolls she had been looking for and made a mental note to change how she organized her pouch of ninja gear so that not even several minutes of fighting an S-ranked rogue ninja and desperately pulling out dozens of different objects would make a mess of it. After confirming that Naruto's clones were in position, Tenten thought for half a second, and then warned the boy. "By the way, I'm going to make one two changes to the jutsu; your part of the jutsu's the same, but I thought I should warn I'm doing something a bit different from what we planned on my end."

"What?" Naruto scowled at the girl, though his annoyance faded slightly when he heard a series of rippling explosions as his clones sacrificed themselves to rip a hole through Itachi's trapped perimeter. "Geez, Tenten-chan; we spent a lot of time working together to get this jutsu exactly right. You can't go and change things at the last minute! That'll throw all of our hard work out the window; combination jutsu don't work when you change them like that!"

"Like I sais, you won't have to do anything different from the jutsu, and my change should make it hit a lot harder." Tenten gave a slightly sheepish smile as she added. "I actually had the idea a while ago, but I couldn't tell you because … well, it involves something I was saving to use against you if we had to fight each other in the tournament." _It's a pity I won't be able to surprise Naruto with this after all the time I invested in preparing it for our next fight, but there's no point in holding this back if it risks getting both of us killed._

"You mean all this time we were working together on our combo jutsu you were also coming up with a way to take me out?" Naruto grinned and shook his head. "Figures, I should've guessed there was a reason you kept asking me all those questions about how my wind chakra works, but I figured you just needed the info for our jutsu."

"I did need that information for the combination jutsu, but it's true; I was also setting you up to stab you in the back the whole time." Tenten smirked at the boy. "I was looking forward to finally being able to beat you in a fair fight again even if it would only be that one time when I caught you by surprise…" The girl gave a sharp shake of her head and returned her mind to the battle. "You ready Naruto?"

"Yeah, let's kick ass!" Tenten hurled her two scrolls up into the air, and then leapt up after them as the scrolls unwound in the familiar pattern of Tenten's Twin Rising Dragons attack. Naruto's four shadow clones followed her into the air, still arranged in a diamond formation around the girl within the area between the two scrolls. Moments later the scrolls began to release the arsenal of weapons they contained, and each clone grabbed a weapon, took a few moments to charge it with wind chakra in order to quadruple its cutting and penetration power, and then passed the weapon on to Tenten. For her part, the girl grabbed every charged weapon the four clones offered and hastily tied them all together with chakra thread; if not for the fact that charging each kunai or shuriken with wind chakra took a second or two she never would have been able to keep up with the mad pace set by the four clones.

Once Tenten's entire arsenal was out of the sealing scrolls and charged with wind chakra, the girl unleashed her secret weapon, concentrating on the chakra thread as she funneled more power into it and subtly altered its nature. A few seconds later the thread itself and all her weapons were glowing red-hot, and the girl flicked her chakra threads to move the weapons a short distance away so the heat radiating off of them would not roast her before she could launch the attack at Itachi.

"Fire chakra?" The real Naruto grinned up at his friend before he leapt up into place direction behind the girl. _That makes sense if she was trying to come up with a way to counter my wind jutsu. When we ran into each other during the finals I would've brought up my wind jutsu to protect myself from her throwing weapons, and then she'd break out the fire attacks and my defensive jutsu would just make things worse. Now that we're combining wind and fire chakra, that means our combo attack is gonna hit a lot harder than it did when were practicing, and even with just wind chakra it was pretty good_. Right after Tenten launched the weapons at Itachi Naruto unleashed the final phase of the attack, using Futon: Gale Palm to add a burst of wind that doubled the weapons' speed and further enhanced the mixture of fire and wind chakra coating the barrage of weaponry.

The addition of Tenten's newly revealed fire chakra made the attack far more devastating than it had been in the duo's previous practice sessions. The two genin quickly lost sight of Itachi as kunai and shuriken tore straight through everything in their path like tissue paper, shredding the massive trees of the Forest of Death and filling the air with smoke and debris. The destruction caused by the combination jutsu increased when several of the weapons triggered another section of Itachi's perimeter of explosive tags, setting off a series of explosions that ripped apart even more trees. When the attack finally came to an end nd the two genin dropped back to the ground they saw the swatch of devastation their jutsu carved through the forces. There was no sign of Itachi, but with all the smoke and debris in the air the Uchiha rogue could have been five feet away and Naruto would have a hard time seeing him.

"I guess now that you've changed the jutsu we'll have to tweak the name a bit, right Tenten-chan?" Naruto frowned in thought for a moment before suggesting. "I guess it's not Metal Storm any more, but Flaming Metal Storm." After several more seconds passed with no sign of Itachi Naruto risked a tentative smile and asked hopefully. "You think we got him?" _I don't think anything could survive getting caught in the middle of that, and not even a sharingan would be enough to dodge that many weapons going that fast_.

"I don't know, but I sure hope so." Tenten wiped an arm across her brow, attempting to keep too much sweat from getting into her eyes. "Twin Rising Dragons uses up a lot of my chakra normally, and adding fire chakra to all of the weapons on top of that … I'm pretty much wiped out."

"Warn me next time before you do something like that!" An all too recognizable voice called out waspishly as Maeko joined the duo her scarred face deformed by an angry scowl. "I was a lot closer to that attack than I would've liked, and if you guys had hit me…"

"No way to warn you without warning Itachi." Naruto answered with an unapologetic shrug. "And speaking of warning people before doing something unexpected, when the hell did you get a kekkei genkai anyway?"

"I was born with it, dumbass." Maeko snapped contemptuously.

"And it never occurred to you that it might be a good idea to use it before half our teammates got knocked out of the fight?" Tenten growled at the other girl. "If you hadn't waited so long to use it we might have been able to-"

"Shut up! You don't have a clue what you're talking about, so shut the hell up!" Maeko glared at both of her allies, her teeth clenched with rage. "If you wanna start something I'll be glad to rip your apart, bitch!"

"Hey, Maeko, let's wait until we're sure the bad guy's not gonna kill us all before we start fighting each other, alright?" Naruto hoped that his suggestion would be enough to defuse the girl's temper. _If Itachi's still alive we're probably screwed no matter what, but there's no reason to make things worse by fighting amongst ourselves_.

Maeko glared at Tenten for a few seconds more, then scoffed and turned her back on the other girl. "She's not worth the trouble anyway." _I suppose the moron does have a point; Itachi's enough trouble to deal with for now. Besides, I'm not used to using my chakra like this; I'm not quite as worn out as Tenten seems to be, but I don't think I could manage another ranton jutsu if my life depended on it. Good thing we hammered Itachi with that last attack, because right now Naruto seems to be the only one left from both our teams who isn't injured or running on empty._

The genin slowly relaxed as the air cleared and there was still no sign of Itachi. "Looks like we might have gotten him after all, or at least scared the guy off." Despite his declaration, Naruto did not drop his guard just yet. "It's gonna be hard to tell for sure; from the way our flaming metal storm shredded through all those trees there wouldn't be much of a body left for anyone to identify." Naruto slipped out of his combat stance as his attention shifted to their wounded teammates. "Alright guys, let's get Neji out of here so the medics can patch him up. I'm pretty sure they'll make an exception to the normal rules about not letting teams out when we get attacked by one of the two most wanted rogue ninjas in Konoha, so that shouldn't be a problem. Bushy Brows and I will get Neji, the rest of you just –." The rest of Naruto's sentence came to an abrupt end as a black and red blur shot in front him and a foot slammed into the boy's stomach. The force of the blow sent Naruto flying back several feet before he slammed painfully to the ground.

"An impressive effort, Naruto-kun." Itachi knocked out the two exhausted kunoichi with casual ease before Naruto even managed to recover from the unexpected attack, and when Naruto returned to his feet he faced Itachi completely alone. "It is a rare thing for genin to have the level of teamwork necessary to perform a true collaboration jutsu." _If I had attempted to face the attack head-on instead of replacing myself with a clone before it hit I doubt anything in my arsenal short of Susanoo would have been able to completely block an attack with that many strikes of such concentrated power._

Masaru and Lee moved up to support Naruto, but the boy could tell just by looking at his allies that neither was in any condition to fight. Gai had never explained all the details of how the inner gates worked to Naruto, but the boy knew enough to realize that Lee would need more time to recover from the effects of using them. Masaru seemed equally unsteady on his feet, and the boy's eyes were glassy as he squinted at Itachi. "Lee, Masaru, you two get out of here with the others!" Naruto shifted his full attention to Itachi. "Hey, asshole! You said you wanted me to go somewhere with you, right? You let my friends go, and I won't give you any trouble." _At least, I won't give you any trouble until my friends are outta here; once they're safe your leverage is gone._

"Very well." Itachi's face remained expressionless as he gave a slight nod in the boy's direction. "Your proposal is acceptable, Naruto-kun. I have no interest in your companions; you are my objective."

"Naruto-kun!" Lee called out, desperately staggering towards his teammate. "You can't do this! We'll fight him together! I can … I can still …" Lee's weakened body collapsed under its own weight, dropping the drained genin to his hands and knees. "You can't just give up, Naruto-kun!" The other boy gasped. "There has to be some other way…" _My body still has not recovered from using the inner gates. Why am I so weak? I must not have trained hard enough; there is no other way I could be so weak that I would fail Naruto-kun in his hour of need!  
_

"There's no other way Bushy Brows." Naruto sighed and shot his teammate a weak smile as he let the chakra of the Nine Tailed Fox fade away. "This guy's already kicked our asses pretty bad, and if I don't go with him now there's no way I could stop him from just killing the rest of you and knocking me out. He's gonna get me either way, but at least this way the rest of you are gonna be alright. I appreciate everything you guys did for me, I really do, but it looks like this is it. You guys just worry about getting yourselves to safety now; I can take care of myself. We were never gonna beat this guy anyway, only a high-level jonin or the ANBU stand a chance against someone on his level." _Just go along with it and get out of here Bushy Brows; if you guys can raise the alarm in time the ANBU or one of the jonin might catch Itachi and me before we get out of the village. and then I'll be able to get loose without having too much trouble. Even if he does get away from the village, I can always just channel a shit-ton of the Fox's chakra; I'd probably go out of control, but if I do it when only Itachi's around that won't be as much of a problem._

Lee's eyes widened slightly and he gave Naruto a very slight nod. _I think I understand now; do not worry Naruto-kun, I will bring Gai-sensei to rescue you._ Lee remained motionless on the ground, trying to look as though he had lost all hope as Itachi led Naruto away from the rest of the group. _I only need a minute to recover, and then I will set a new record for making it to the edge of the Forest of Death. I will not fail you again, Naruto-kun!  
_

"Your friends are very loyal, and your actions indicate that you return their loyalty." Itachi commented as he led the young jinchuriki away from his beaten companions. "It is unusual to see a jinchuriki who enjoys such strong bonds of fellowship with his companions. Most jinchuriki are friendless loners who are distrusted by their own villages"

"Hey, aren't you gonna tie me up or something?" Naruto was not quite sure what Itachi had in mind for him after taking him prisoner, but he did know that prisoners usually got tied up.

"Restraints are unnecessary; at your current skill level you are incapable of escaping from me." Itachi replied with emotionless confidence. "Your attempt to use your companions to summon reinforcements was likewise a futile gesture; Konoha's ANBU and jonin are incapable of preventing me from accomplishing my mission."

_Damn; I guess it figures I wouldn't be able to get any sort of message past someone like Itachi, but I was hoping he didn't catch on to what I was trying to tell Lee. Well, I'm not gonna give up yet; sooner or later I'll find a way outta this mess, 'cause there's no way I'm gonna let this bastard kill me. Might as well see if I can learn anything more about this guy and what his group's up to; he seemed willing enough to talk about Akatsuki earlier before the fight started._ "Hey!" Naruto glared at the Akatsuki member. "If you guys are gonna kill me to extract the Nine Tailed Fox, can you at least tell me why you're after it in the first place? I mean, I'm gonna be dead anyway, so it's not like it's gonna matter if you tell me what you're up to."

Itachi remained silent for a few seconds, and then nodded. "You are correct. The Tailed Beasts are the most concentrated chakra source on the planet; with all nine of the Tailed Beasts in their possession, the Akatsuki would become the most powerful organization in the world, far stronger than any of the great shinobi nations. The Tailed Beasts could serve as a source of energy for jutsu of unspeakable magnitude, or the Akatsuki could simply use them to create new jinchuriki loyal to the organization's agenda. Every Akatsuki member is already an S-ranked rogue ninja. If they were to gain the abilities of a jinchuriki as well, then each member of the Akatsuki would have powers and abilities that equal or exceed those of any currently living Kage."

"Man…" _Nine Kage-level criminals running around together could cause all kinds of trouble. These guys sound like bad news; seriously bad news_. "So, what other guys are in Akatsuki anyway? What makes you think they could take out Kages?"

"As I said, each Akatsuki member is already skilled enough to present any Kage with a credible challenge when they do not have the chakra capacity and abilities of a jinchuriki. Each Akatsuki member possesses unique and powerful skills; my partner, Kisame Hoshigaki, is the former leader of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of Kirigakure. I assume you are familiar with the Seven Ninja Swordsmen and the capabilities of their blades from your time in Kiri?"

"Yeah, I've heard of them; I even met the guy who's in charge of them now that there's a new Mizukage." Naruto answered, eager to keep the conversation going. _The more I can learn here, the more info I can take back if I manage to get away._ "He uses … um … I don't remember the sword's name, but it's the one that eats people's chakra, right?"

"Very good." The rogue ninja and his prisoner walked along in silence for a few seconds before Itachi continued. "The other members of the organization are equally formidable. Orochimaru of the Sannin joined at some point after his departure from Konoha; he works alongside Sasori of the Red Sand, Suna's greatest puppet-master. Hidan possesses a unique jutsu that grants him complete immortality, while his partner Kakuzu has the ability to steal people's hearts and store them within his own body to sustain his life and use their jutsu. Zetsu is Akatsuki's reconnaissance and infiltration specialist, capable of appearing and disappearing in any place almost at will and creating almost perfect copies of himself or anyone else. Akatsuki's leader is it's greatest asset. Even I do not know the full extent of his powers, but I do know that he possesses the legendary Rinnegan, the same kekkei genkai that the legendary Sage of the Six Paths used to create ninjutsu." _There is also Madara, but if I reveal his existence to Konoha it would compromise the plans I already have in motion for dealing with him._

Naruto ran the list or names and abilities through his head repeatedly, trying to commit all of the information to memory. _The Old Man and everyone is gonna want to know all this stuff about Akatsuki, so if I need to make sure I remember all of it for if I manage to find a way to get away from this bastard_. Naruto was not certain what Konoha would do about the Akatsuki, but Naruto doubted that the Hokage would ignore the fact that a group of the ninja world's most infamous and dangerous criminals was out hunting jinchuriki.

The jinchuriki and his Akatsuki escort continued on in relative silence for a minute or so while Naruto split his attention between looking for a chance to escape and memorizing the information he managed to pump out of Itachi. Suddenly, the rogue Uchiha came to abrupt halt, remaining completely still for a two seconds before emotionlessly declaring. "It's been a while, hasn't it Sasuke?"

"Itachi Uchiha." Naruto turned about and searched through the trees until he located the younger Uchiha boy. Sasuke was standing on one of the tree limbs, looking down at his older brother. "I am going to kill you." Sasuke hopped down from his position and stalked towards is older brother, glaring at the man with sharingan eyes that overflowed with wild hatred. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this day. Ever since the day you killed our parents I've lived every day of my life hating you, I've devoted my entire life to killing you." A hint of madness entered the boy's eyes as he charged forward "I have lived for this moment!"

Sasuke unleashed a massive fireball at Itachi, prompting the Uchiha rogue to dodge to the side to escape the blast. Naruto wasted no time moving in the opposite direction from his captor, channeling the Fox's chakra once more as he began circling around with the intention of joining forces with Sasuke. _Looks like Sasuke uses fire too. Makes sense; chakra natures do tend to run in families. If I can use a wind jutsu to boost Sasuke's fire techniques, we might stand a chance here; not a great chance, but I'll take what I can get_.

By the time Naruto was within sight of Sasuke, Itachi had already beaten him there and slammed a kick into his younger brother's stomach, sending the boy flying back until he slammed into a tree. "Foolish little brother; you're in my way."

Naruto made his way to Sasuke's side as the other boy picked himself up off the ground. "Alright, here's what I'm thinking Sasuke. If you use another fire jutsu then I can use my wind jutsu to –"

"Stay out of this, Uzumaki." Sasuke snarled at the jinchuriki. "This is my fight; it's none of you damn business."

"You can't take this guy alone!" Naruto shot back. "My team and Neji's both tried to take him on, and he kicked our asses even though we had him outnumbered six to one! Bushy Brows was the only one who even managed to land a real hit on him, and that was by using a dangerous forbidden jutsu that left him completely wiped out afterwards while two other people helped him. You try to take him on by yourself and you'll definitely die!"

"I told you to stay out of this!" Sasuke shouted at Naruto. "If you get in my way…"

"You are of no interest to me, Sasuke." Itachi regarded the boy dispassionately. "I am curious though ... how did you find me?"

"My team was in the same area as the Suna team with the jinchuriki on it when that fish guy you're working with showed up. As soon as I asked he told me what area you were in, and after that it was easy to just head towards the sounds of battle."

"I see that your teammates have not accompanied you." Itachi regarded the boy levelly.

Sasuke faltered for a moment, and then looked back at Itachi with redoubled rage. "You're not going to be able to distract me so you can get away you bastard! I'm going to make you pay for what you did!"

"Geez, you gotta stop letting him get to you, Sasuke!" Naruto whispered to the other boy. "If we're gonna have any chance of getting out of this fight in one piece we gotta think smart and work together; if you let him get you so pissed off you can't even think straight he's gonna tear you apart!"

"I told you to stay out of this, Naruto!" The Uchiha boy shot Naruto a poisonous glare.

_Crap, he's gone off the deep end_. Naruto grimaced at his fellow Konoha shinobi. _He's so pissed off that he's not thinking straight at all; I guess I can't really blame him for going a little nuts when he's up against the guy who killed his entire family though. I'd probably go a little crazy if I was fighting someone who killed Tenten-chan or Bushy Brows, and they're just my friends. Still, there's no way in hell I can work along with him when he's like this, and he's not gonna back down no matter how hopeless the fight is. At least he'll keep Itachi busy for a bit while I get away._

"If you left your teammates to face Kisame by themselves then they will certainly die." Itachi declared, his gaze briefly flickering to Naruto before it settled back on the boy. "I told you not to face me until you had the same eyes as I do. You do not have those eyes. You have not even fully matured your sharingan yet. There is no point in me fighting you at this time. It is foolish to pursue a pointless battle at the expense of your allies."

Naruto took one last look at Sasuke before he came to his decision. "Sasuke, where did you leave your teammates?" _Sasuke's a lost cause, he's not gonna fight in any sort of coordinated strategy with me, and if I try to help him it's not gonna do either of us any good. However, if I hurry I might still be able to save Sakura-san and the other member of their team; what was her name again? I don't want any Konoha ninjas dying today if I can stop it._

"That way." Sasuke waved a hand in the vague direction he had come from, and moments later Naruto rushed off to save the remaining members of Team Seven. _Good, now it's just me and Itachi, the way it should be. _"I don't have eyes like yours, Itachi. I'm not a psycho bastard who kills his own friends and family just for the hell of it! The eyes I've got right now are good enough to see you die!" Sasuke rushed forward to avenge his family.

The next thirty seconds were some of the most physically painful ones Sasuke had ever experienced in his life. Itachi was always five steps ahead of his younger brother, mercilessly raining blows down upon the young boy. After another kick sent Sasuke flying the battered young genin struggled to pick himself up off the forest. _Dammit … how is he still so much stronger than I am? I thought I might have managed to close the gap, but after all this time it's only gotten wider._ In his heart, Sasuke came to a bitter realization._ Naruto was right, I never stood a chance in this fight. I should've stayed with my team; I attacked one of my comrades and abandoned them, just to go chasing after revenge I never had a chance of achieving. I hope they make it out alive... _The boy hacked up a mouthful of blood, spasming in agony as pain lanced through his broken ribs. Between the blood he hacked up and the blood streaming down his face from his broken nose, half of Sasuke's face was covered in a sheet of his own blood. "Is that … all you've got Itachi?" The beaten boy gasped out, refusing to give Itachi the satisfaction of seeing him give up. "Come on! Finish me off! Do it!"

"Foolish little brother, you're still not worth killing. You are still too weak; face me again when you have the Mangekyo Sharingan. Until then …" The older Uchiha boy slammed one last blow into his little brother, sending Sasuke mercifully into the realm of unconsciousness. Itachi regarded his brother's body for a second, and then slowly reached out to tap him on the forehead, a brief, wistful smile on his face. "Sorry Sasuke, some other time."

* * *

"Don't worry Gaara-kun, this won't hurt a bit." Kisame grinned as his blade began its downward journey towards the prone jinchuriki's legs. "This is gonna hurt a lot!"

Kisame's sharp-toothed grin transformed into a frown when his blade came to a halt far too soon to have reached Gaara's legs. To Kisame's mild annoyance, the blond-haired girl with the fan had jumped between the two and blocked his weapon with the steel casing that held her fan. Temari held her fan up horizontally with both hands, perpendicular to the massive sword that she kept at bay, though there was now a substantial dent in the weapon's metal casing. The girl's arms trembled from the strain of holding back Kisame's huge sword, but the mixture of fury and iron determination in her eyes made it clear she was not about to back down. "Get away from my brother, you bastard!"

"Temari?" Gaara looked up at the girl, pure shock written on his normally stoic face. "Why did you…"

Temari's eyes flicked back to check on Gaara for half a second, and she shot her brother a tight smile before she returned her attention to the man who had shattered Gaara's absolute defense. "Didn't you know Gaara? Big sisters are supposed to protect their little brothers." _I never thought anybody would be able to beat Gaara, but this guy … he tore Gaara apart. It's strange; for years I've been scared to death that one day Kankuro or I would say or do something wrong, or Gaara would just wake up in a bad mood, and then he'd finally kill us. I was terrified of him. But … seeing him now, beaten, bleeding, helpless … I had to help him. I guess that no matter what happens between us and how screwed up things get, he's still my little brother, and I'm still his big sister._

Kisame grinned down at the girl and gave an amused chuckle. "I should have remembered that your teammates were family members; siblings always do silly things to protect each other." Kisame's grin widened in order to show off his mouth full or razor sharp teeth. "Well, I was planning to kill you anyway, so I suppose if you wants to throw her life away protecting your little brother that's fine too. I'm sure you realize that your little fan can't stop Samehada again; I've already put a rather big dent in it with just one hit." _I could finish this quick, but it's not like I'm in any hurry_. Kisame flexed his powerful muscles and pressed down with the tip of his sword, forcing Termari's fan down several inches through sheer physical might despite the fact that the angle of his blade gave him poor leverage.

_Dammit, he's right. My fan's steel casing is durable enough to take some hits and it weighs enough that I can even turn it into a decent club, but between that__ huge sword and his monstrous strength my fan won't last long at all_. "Gaara, get out of here." For the first time in years, Temari gave her brother a direct order rather than a gently worded suggestion. "Your chakra's exhausted and you're wounded, you're in no condition to fight." Turning her attention to her other brother, Temari issued another set of orders. "Kankuro, you're also wounded, and a puppeteer isn't much good when his puppet has been destroyed; stick with Gaara."

"But Temari…" Kankuro naturally objected to his sister's plan to fight a rearguard action against Kisame in order buy her brothers time to get away, and was a bit worried about the prospect of being alone with a wounded Gaara. _I know Gaara looks too weak to do much right now, but if Shukaku wakes up…_ "Temari, we both need to help protect Gaara. Besides, if we leave you to fight this guy by yourself then–"

"Relax, I'm sure that I can get away from this guy when I need to." Temari's assurances were utterly false, but she knew that if she didn't lie then Kankuro then her brother would insist on trying to help even though there was little he could do at this point. "Besides, I'm not completely alone; Pinky there can help me out." _I'm not sure how much help she'll be since she's mostly been busy trying to keep her friend from bleeding out, but I'm not exactly in a position to be picky about the help I get. Anything is better than nothing.  
_

Sakura twitched at the obvious reference to her. _Pinky? Well, it's better than Billboard Brow._ "Akane seems to be as stable as I can get her." Sakura answered, looking worriedly at her wounded teammate. _There's not much I can do for her with just some basic bandages and disinfectants out of my first aid kit; it would take a trained medical ninja to really help her. The only thing I can do for her now is get her to a proper medic_. "Can one of your teammates help get Akane to safety while we're fighting?" Sakura requested, trying to sound more confident than she felt.

Before Temari could respond to the request, Kisame pushed down with his blade once more and forced Temari to focus all her attention on halting the blade's deadly progress. Temari strained and her arms quivered on the edge of total collapse, but Samehada finally came to a stop inches away from Temari's shoulder. Just when the girl thought that she had escaped mortal peril for the moment, Kisame grinned at her and the straight blade suddenly flexed down to carve into the upper part of Temari's right arm, ripping off enough flesh to reveal the bone beneath. The girl fell back with a cry of agony as her fan tumbled from her hands, and suddenly the girl had fallen to the ground at Gaara's side, clutching her ruined arm and every bit as helpless as her brother had been.

Temari flinched when she saw the vicious wound Kisame's strange weapon inflicted upon her arm. _Even if I wasn't pretty much out of chakra I can't use my fan with my arm in this state._ "Looks like this is it." Temari's uninjured arm reached into her pouch of ninja tools and slowly pulled out her supply of explosive tags, doing what she could to conceal her movements. _Since he uses a sword he'll probably want to get up close to finish me off and take off Gaara's legs, so I still might be able to take him down. No matter how scary his sword is, blowing him up still ought to work just fine. Have to figure out a way to keep from hurting Gaara in the process though._ "Gaara, get out of here now!" The girl hissed to her brother, who was staring at the explosive tags in her hand with a slight frown.

Kisame's advance on the downed siblings came to a brief halt as he swept Samehada behind him to deflect a trio of shuriken. "I'm a little busy right now, so you'll just have to wait until it's your turn, little girl." Kisame shot a vicious, tooth-filled grin at Sakura, who flinched back in response. "Don't worry though, I'll get to you and your little friend I've taken care of Gaara-kun's legs and his siblings. After all, I owe your friend for hitting me in the face, and you helped put that little cut on my cheek, didn't you? Have I mentioned how much I hate it when people hit me in the face?"

Sakura felt a sudden, crushing urge to flee the scene as fast as she possibly could; the Suna trio was obviously out of the fight, and she already knew that she had no chance of surviving if she tried to face Kisame by herself. _I could try to take Akane and run, but I'm not going to be able to move very fast while I'm carrying her so it wouldn't take him long to catch up to us. I can't abandon her though; I'm not going to leave her here by herself to get killed while I run away like a coward. I have no choice but stick things out and wait for an opportunity to get both of us to safety. Maybe he'll get distracted dealing with the others...  
_

Kisame turned his back on Sakura and shifted attention to Gaara. "Now then, unless anyone else wants to jump and try to interrupt me, I believe it's time to get rid of those legs. Don't worry, you'll barely even notice that they're gone, and at least you'll still have your arms." The rogue swordsman brought Samehada crashing down onto Gaara's legs, easily cutting straight through both of them.

"Gaara!" Temari cried out her brother's name, cursing her inability to do anything to save him.

Kisame looked down at his broken opponent, and his twisted smile slowly transformed itself into a less than pleased frown. "How very … disappointing." The monstrous swordsman slowly extracted his blade from the hollow sand shell he had just destroyed. "He must have gotten away while I was distracted by his sister or that Konoha girl." Kisame gave a resigned shrug, and then turned his attention to Temari. "Oh well. Guess that means it's your turn." Kisame launched Samehada into a backhand swing and casually lopped the girl's head off.

Temari blinked in surprise when moments before the blow connected she found herself hidden in the bushes on the opposite side of the clearing, watching Kisame cut her head off. Moments later, the decapitated Temari transformed into another motionless pile of sand, right next to the other clone Gaara had left behind.

Temari tore her gaze away from Kisame, and too her relief discovered both of her brothers at her side, wounded and exhausted but still very much alive. Turning her attention to her youngest brother, Temari hesitantly said. "You saved me, didn't you Gaara?" Her brother remained silent, his face entirely impassive, but slowly Gaara's head dipped down in a barely perceptible nod. "Thank you, Gaara."

Gaara cocked his head slightly to the side as he regarded his sister curiously. "Little brothers are supposed to protect their big sisters too." The jinchuriki repeated his sister's earlier words back to her. _That look in her eyes when she stopped that sword from hitting me; I've seen that expression before, every time people protect others. But ... I never expected anyone would wear that expression when they were protecting me. Why did she do that?_ The jinchuriki scowled as the unusually troublesome thoughts continued to occupy his mind. Gaara had threatened to kill the girl on more than one occasion, though she was generally much more sensible about not provoking him than Kankuro. Despite that, for some reason when Kisame's blade had been about to end Temari's life Gaara had acted without thinking, using his last dregs of chakra to pull off a last minute replacement of Temari with a simple sand clone. _She's nothing to me … so why did I save her?_ "Let's get out of here." Gaara ordered his siblings, hoping that getting away from the battlefield would help to put the aggravating thoughts out of his head.

Kisame was more than a little disappointed when his second victim also turned out to be a sand clone, and his mood hardly improved when a strike at Kankuro yielded the exact same result. "Looks like they all got away. And the fight was just getting to the best part…" _I can always chase them down in a bit, but I think I've got a bit of unfinished business to take care of here first. A two minute head start won't be nearly enough to let the jinchuriki get away_. Kisame turned about and grinned at Sakura. "Well, I suppose that means you're the only one left, although I'm not done with your little friend just yet either." Kisame smirked at the girl. "Well, are you ready to die? Don't worry, I won't drag it out too much."

Sakura shivered in terror at the thought of facing the mysterious rogue ninja by herself. The swordsman had taken down a jinchuriki and two far more experienced ninjas with little difficulty, even if they had managed to escape in the end. For a brief moment Sakura considered fleeing. Defending her fallen teammate was in all likelihood pointless; Sakura had no realistic chance of stopping a shinobi of Kisame's level, or even slowing him down significantly. Akane was still going to die either way; the only thing Sakura had control over was whether she would die at Akane's side or live to fight another day.

Just when she was about to give in to her fear, Sakura's mind went back to the very first lesson her jonin-sensei had taught Team 7. A ninja who abandoned or betrayed their comrades was the worst sort of scum in the world, even below those who disobeyed orders and refused to follow the rules. "I will not run away." Sakura declared as determination displaced her fear and the girl hesitantly drew a kunai and placed her body between her fallen teammate and Kisame. "I know I'll probably die if I try to fight you, but … I will not run away."

Kisame regarded the girl for a moment before he chuckled. "You've got guts girl, I'll give you that." The shark-like swordsman hefted his sword into a casual ready stance and began to slowly stalk towards the girl. "However, nothing's gonna save you now."

"Dynamic Entry!" An orange-clad figure sheathed in red chakra burst out of the woods and slammed a flying kick into Kisame's face, sending the rogue ninja flying. "Konoha's ultimate number one ninja, Naruto Uzumaki, is here to save the day!" Naruto smirked down at Kisame and added. "Y'know, you really shouldn't have tempted fate by using a line like 'nothing can save you now,' 'cause that's just tempting fate way too much."

H_e's right, I walked right into that one_. Kisame picked himself up off the ground and glared at the new arrival resentfully. "You kicked me in the face. You Konoha brats are always hitting me in the face..." The Kiri rogue gave the boy a quick once-over before declaring. "You don't look like much for the kid who's supposed to be the Nine Tails jinchuriki, but neither did Yagura-sama, and you do kick pretty hard. Do I need to introduce myself, or did your friends in Kiri tell you about me?"

"You're Kisame Hoshigaki, former leader of Kiri's Seven Swordmen. Itachi mentioned that you were his partner, and there aren't that many shark-guys running around with big, scaly and bandaged swords in Akatsuki cloaks."

"Good, no need to waste time with introductions then." Kisame grinned at the boy and asked. "How did you get away from Itachi-san, anyway? Did Sasuke-kun show up and distract him?"

"Yeah. The rest of my team had already gotten away by then, so it was just him and me. Sasuke said he wanted to go up against Itachi by himself, but when I found out he'd left his teammates alone to fight against you…"

_Naruto-san came to save me?_ Sakura hesitantly reached out and gently tugged on the sleeve of Naruto's shirt to get his attention, flinching slightly when her fingertips passed through the Fox's chakra whirling around Naruto. "Naruto-san, watch out for his sword." The girl warned her rescuer "It can absorb chakra."

"Thanks for the warning, Sakura-san." The boy looked over his shoulder and shot her a quick smile. "You just sit back and take care of your teammate; don't worry, I'm not gonna let this asshole do anything to you."

"Well, you are a confident one, aren't you?" Kisame smiled at jinchuriki as he brought his sword back into a ready position. "Well, I already had a chance to go up against the One Tails jinchuriki, but he wasn't nearly enough of a challenge. Maybe you'll be more interesting…"

"Kisame." Naruto and Kisame both started in surprise when Itachi suddenly appeared in one of the nearby trees. "Don't bother fighting Naruto-kun." The Uchiha easily made his way to Kisame's side. "I have already had sufficient time to evaluate his skills, and it is likely Konoha's ANBU are already aware of our presence. Staying here to fight is pointless; we came here for a reconnaissance mission, not to start a two-person war against all of Konoha."

Kisame frowned in displeasure, but let out a resigned sigh moments later. "Darn, just when I was really starting to excited…" Moments later the two Akatsuki shinobi had disappeared into the trees.

"Are they really gone?" Sakura swept the clearing for any sign of the two rogue ninja.

"I think so." Naruto slowly let the Fox's chakra slip away, though he did not completely relax just yet. "You alright, Sakura-san?"

"Yes, but Akane's in bad shape." Sakura shot a worried look at her wounded comrade.

"My team has probably had about enough time to get out of the forest and raise the alarm by now, so help ought to be on the way." Naruto assured the girl "Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki are two of the nastiest ninjas out there, but they're still only two ninjas. Going up against every ninja in Konoha, plus the other foreign jonin that are here for the Chunin Exam, would be way too much for them to handle. They might be big scary ninjas, but they're not gods."

"Alright, that's good." Sakura felt an odd twinge of sudden nervousness as she looked at the boy who rescued. "Um … thank you for helping us, Naruto-san."

Naruto grinned and gave a careless shrug. "Well, what was I supposed to do once I found out you guys were in trouble? I mean you needed help, and it's not I like I could just ignore that and pretend it wasn't my problem." Naruto frowned down at Sakura's injured teammate. "She looks pretty bad." The boy quickly conjured some shadow clones and used a few wind jutsu to carve some tree limbs into a rough stretcher for the wounded girl. "Come on Sakura-san, let's get her out of here so she can get fixed up."

"Are you sure they'll let us out of here?" Sakura asked uncertainly. "I mean, I know having S-ranked rogue ninjas show up wasn't supposed to be part of the test, but the proctor did say that nobody was allowed to leave the forest once they went in, and they might not believe us if we tell them what happened."

"There's enough witnesses that they'll probably believe us, and even if they don't I doubt they'd let a bunch of critically injured genin die just for the hell of it. People do die in the exams, but they generally try to keep the death toll as low as possible; no reason to let perfectly good ninjas go to waste." Naruto's clones picked up the stretcher with it's wounded passenger, and set off towards the edge of the forest. "Akane's not the only one that's in bad shape; everyone else from my team and Neji's was in bad shape."

"How did they get away from Itachi Uchiha if they were so injured?" Sakura took a few quick steps to catch up with the real Naruto.

"Oh, I kinda told Itachi that I'd be his prisoner if he let them go free." Naruto grinned sheepishly, not looking forward to what was going to happen once Tenten found out about that incident. The two genin traveled through the woods for about a before Naruto sensed felt a very familiar and extremely powerful chakra nearby, rapidly approaching both of them. _I'm no sensor, but it's hard to miss that much chakra_. Naruto's eyes shot to the side, and seconds later a two-tailed, vaguely humanoid creature sheathed in blue-black chakra with a pair of cat-like ears burst out of the trees. Sakura let out a frightened yelp at the creature's appearance, and Naruto tried to calm her down with a reassuring smile.

"There you are, Naruto-kun. Where are the Akatsuki?" When the boy informed the new arrival that the rogue ninjas were already gone, the creature seemed to relax slightly. "Giving yourself up so that your teammates could get away was noble, Naruto-kun." The creature's facial expression was impossible to read, but its voice carried a confused mixture of approval and anger. "Suicidally idiotic, but noble."

"What the hell are you doing here, Kitty-chan?" Naruto demanded, not entirely certain if she had come to help him or finish him off. _That cloak's different than the one she used last time, though it does kinda looks like the one Yagura used when I fought him. I wonder if that's the Version Two thing she was talking about?_

"I was looking for you, of course." The creature scanned the area for a few more seconds, and then the chakra cloaking the woman slowly pulled back and Nii Yugito resumed a fully human form. "I was talking with the proctor for the Exam when your teammate Lee came rushing out of the forest yelling something about Itachi Uchiha and Akatsuki and you giving yourself up."

"So … you came rushing in to save me?" Naruto frowned at the woman.

"I'm not sure what Akatsuki wants with the jinchuriki, but a mercenary group made up entirely of S-ranked rogue ninjas can't be up to anything good." Yugito replied. "I don't want Akatsuki to think they can go around messing with jinchuriki with no consequences." Yugito smirked at the boy and added. "Besides, I make it a policy to help out for potential future Kumo ninjas like you, Naruto-kun."

Noticing Sakura's confused expression, Naruto decided to explain the situation to her. "Kitty-chan's a jinchuriki like me, and she tried to get me to defect to Kumo once, but I turned her down."

"Like I said, stupid, but noble." Yugito scowled in the general direction of Konoha. "You deal with way too much crap living in Konoha; you deserve to live in a village where everyone doesn't treat you like shit. I don't know why you still put up with all the crap you have to deal with here."

"Konoha's still my home, Kitty-chan; I'm sure you can understand that." Naruto responded seriously. "Yeah, there's lots of assholes here, but there are good people too. Besides, even if Konoha doesn't always live up to its ideals, I believe in what Konoha stands for. To me, the ideals Konoha as a whole stands for is more important than the fact that some of the people who live here are assholes who hate me just for being a jinchuriki."

Sakura felt like was intruding into a private conversation between Naruto and Yugito, but she still wanted to add her own point. "Not everyone in Konoha hates you for being a jinchuriki, Naruto-sa – Naruto-kun." The girl switched honorifics at the last minute in an effort to reinforce the fact that she was one of the people who saw past the fact that he was a jinchuriki. For some reason she did not entirely comprehend, switching to a familiar form of address with Naruto made her blush furiously. The fact that Yugito smirked when she noticed Sakura's reaction did nothing but make the sudden rush of embarrassment worse.

_Why should I feel so uncomfortable acknowledging Naruto as a friend? He seems like a decent enough guy; we wound up getting along pretty well during the first phase of the exam after all. Plus, he did save me and Akane from that Kisame guy just now; I can't believe how selfless he was, rushing in to save me even though we're not on the same team_. The girl could not help contrasting Naruto's actions with Sasuke's. _Sasuke made the choice a cold, detached ninja should make; he pursued the interests of his village and his squad to the exclusion of all else, at least until he went crazy after he heard about his brother. However, Naruto put his life on the line for a girl he doesn't even know that well, just because she needed help. Sasuke's choice was the one a true shinobi should make … but I think I prefer the choice Naruto made, even if it was the wrong choice for a ninja. It's funny, but if you think about it, Naruto's a lot like what I hoped Sasuke would be like once I finally got him to open up._

Sakura nearly stumbled and fell flat on her face when the full implications of that thought and the places it would inevitably lead struck her.

* * *

**A/N:** And that finishes off one of the fight scenes I was really looking forward to writing for a while. I hope it came out as well written down as it was in my head.

As quite a few of my reviewers pointed out, last chapter had an amusing typo that resulted in Kisame unleashing a "fluffy" against Gaara. I have no idea how that happened or how I missed it when I was reading the chapter over, but I considered leaving it in just for how funny it was. I am now horribly tempted to create a picture of Kisame cradling a cute, fluffy little animal and/or do a humor fic based on that premise. Politely Psychotic Shark-Man + Cute Fluffy Animal = Instant Humor, especially since Itachi has so much potential to serve as a humorous foil due to his stoicism.

On a somewhat related note, I'm still looking for a beta. Self-editing is how I end up posting things like Kisame's fluffy.


	17. After the Forest

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Naruto

* * *

"And then Yugito-san found me and Sakura-san, and from there we got outta the forest and I wound up here." Naruto concluded his report, trying to ignore the gleam of triumph in Yugito's eye when he mentioned her name. While he certainly appreciated the Kumo jinchuriki's help, especially since he was pretty sure she had gone into forest specifically to help him rather than out of concern for Konoha's security or her own team, Naruto disliked the idea of owing her even a relatively minor favor. After all, if his past encounters with her were anything to judge by, Yugito would get as much as she could out of the favor he owed her.

Naruto took a quick look around the Hokage's crowded office; with the jonin-senseis of all the ninja teams in the Forest of Death, plus the Hokage, his councilors, Danzo, a couple other jonin, Anko, and a contingent of masked ANBU the place was rather packed. Having most of the important ninjas in Konoha and a couple visiting foreign dignitaries all focused on him was enough to make the boy a little nervous. While he had a passing familiarity with just about all of the Konoha ninjas thanks to his time as Sarutobi's assistant, there was a big difference between being in the background as the Hokage's helper and being the center of their attention.

Aside from Naruto himself, Lee and Sakura were the only genin who had not wound up in the hospital, and Naruto found himself forced to do most of the talking. The only reason Lee was still conscious was his stubborn refusal to heed his own body's demands; between opening five of his inner gates in the fight against Itachi, running back to get help, and then carrying Tenten to the hospital Lee had pushed himself past the point of exhaustion. Naruto had been quite relieved to learn that Tenten and Neji's team all made it to the hospital alive and nobody looked like they in serious danger of dying.

Sakura was in better shape than Lee, but she seemed to suffering from a mixture of delayed shock from everything that had happened and barely suppressed terror at the thought of how many important people were in the room. Aside from a very short report on what happened to her and her team before Naruto arrived, she only spoke when someone directly addressed her, and usually limited herself to a quiet yes or no answer. Naruto was not surprised at Sakura's state; the closest she had ever come to a serious fight was an encounter with a couple of bandits on a routine escort mission, and Sasuke's actions were more than a little stunning. Even Danzo's perpetual frown deepened when she mentioned that the Uchiha boy had attacked a fellow Konoha ninja, and Naruto was a felt a little nervous when he saw just how angry Kakashi was.

"Thank you for your report, Naruto-kun, Lee-kun, Sakura-san." The Hokage briefly met Naruto's eyes and gave him a slight nod. "I believe that should be enough; if we require any further information from any of you, you will be contacted." Sarutobi normally would not have taken such a formal tone with Naruto, but the situation now was hardly normal. "So, unless there is anything else, the three of you can go on your way."

Lee and Sakura immediately turned to the door, one eager to find a comfortable bed and the other glad to escape the penetrating gazes of two dozen senior ninjas, but Naruto held his ground. "Actually, there are a couple other things, but those can wait until later." Naruto had not mentioned the information he got out Itachi about Akatsuki; he suspected that information was too valuable and sensitive to bring up in front of everyone currently in the old man's office. "Maybe I could come by tomorrow afternoon, once things have settled down a bit?" Naruto forced out a sheepish chuckle and swept his eyes around the room. "It's nothing too huge, really just a couple things I was curious about, so I don't wanna waste all these people's time with it when you've got so much to deal with."

"Alright Naruto-kun, come by some time tomorrow afternoon and I should be able to free a few minutes for you." Sarutobi's tone seemed as casual as Naruto's, but the boy caught the subtle nod the old man sent in his direction. "Now then, off you go."

As soon as the trio of genin exited the Hokage's office, Lee waved a weary goodbye to Naruto and stumbled off in the general direction of his home. Naruto considered going along with him to make sure he got back alright, but decided against it. Despite his obvious exhaustion Lee insisted on staying through the entire meeting until he was dismissed, so Naruto felt confident that Lee could handle the walk home to a comfortable bed.

"Will he be alright?" Sakura asked, her eyes following the departing genin.

"Yeah, Bushy Brows is about as stubborn as I am sometimes." Naruto answered confidently. "He's not gonna let himself pass out halfway home, no matter how tired he is." Naruto stretched his arms, and his gaze passed from Lee to a nearby window, through which Konoha's main hospital was clearly visible. "Well, I'm gonna stop by the hospital and check on how everyone's doing; Lee already told me they're alright, but I wanna go see how they are for myself. Wanna come along, or do you have other stuff to do?" Since she had teammates in the hospital too, Naruto figured there was a fair chance Sakura would have the same destination in mind as he did, so they might as well go there together. If nothing else, it would give him someone to talk to while they walked to the hospital instead of worrying about his friends.

"Sure, I was going to go check on Akane anyway." Sakura agreed. The two genin set off towards the hospital, traveling in silence for a few moments before Sakura spoke up once more. "Thanks again for helping us. If you hadn't shown up when you did, Akane and I would have been…"

"No problem." Naruto answered with a casual shrug. "I'm sure if I'd been in trouble you woulda bailed me out instead."

Considering how much stronger Naruto was than her, Sakura doubted she would actually stand a chance against any opponent strong enough to put Naruto in serious danger. "I can't imagine you'd ever run into someone strong enough to put you in serious trouble, Naruto-kun, and if you did I don't think I could help you much." Sakura frowned down at the ground as her mind went back to the fight. "I wasn't very useful; the Sand team did most of the fighting, and then Akane fought, but I never really did much. All I managed to do was try to patch Akane up after she got hurt, and I don't think I even did a very good job of that."

"Don't be so hard on yourself." Naruto thought back to the aftermath of his fight with Yugito, when the entire team went through a couple days of low moods. Everyone felt like they had failed somehow, and it led to their comrades getting injured. Naruto blamed himself for Tenten's injuries, Tenten blamed herself for not showing up to help him sooner, and Lee and Gai both blamed themselves for missing the fight entirely. Naruto recognized that Sakura was in a similar situation, blaming herself for her teammate's injuries. "The only reason I even managed to land a hit on shark-face was because he was distracted and I got lucky, and Itachi wasn't even bothered when Tenten-chan and I hit him with our best jutsu. Those guys were S-ranked criminals, they're on a completely different level from us, so you can't really blame yourself for not being able to do much against them; Gai-sensei and Kakashi would've had a hard time with them. Besides, you did a good job slowing down Akane's blood loss for not being a medical ninja or anything. You probably saved her life."

"You think so? Well, at least I managed to do something." While she was still feeling rather bad about how things had gone, Sakura took some comfort in the thought that she had not been completely useless. The fact that Naruto had gone to the trouble of lifting her mood helped her make another decision. "Say, Naruto-kun, maybe after we finish checking on everyone we could go get something to eat? You can pick where we go, and I'll treat; it's the least I can do to thank you for helping us."

_Free ramen!__ Awesome!_ "Alright, sounds good. Thanks Sakura-chan." Naruto had been getting along pretty well with Sakura lately, and anyone who bought him ramen deserved a place among his circle of friends. Well, everyone except Yugito, but she bought him ramen with false and deceitful intentions, so in her case the gift of ramen had been tainted, and thus did not count.

"It's no problem, Naruto-kun." In the privacy of her own mind, Sakura let out a triumphant shout of victory. After how much trouble she had with Sasuke she had not expected Naruto to say yet the first time she asked him out on a date. Then again, one of Naruto's most attractive qualities was the fact that he was nothing like Sasuke.

A couple minutes later the two genin arrived at the hospital. A quick check with the nurse at the front desk got them a quick update on the status of their teammates; Neji and Akane were both in serious but stable condition and couldn't receive visitors just yet, while the others remained wounded and exhausted, but more-or-less intact. Naruto was particularly relieved to learn that Tenten was alright; the hospital plan to hold her overnight for observation, though his good mood dimmed when he found out whom Tenten was sharing her room with.

_Well, I guess it makes sense. They're both girls, and got brought to the hospital same time._ Sakura followed along behind him; the medical ninjas were still finishing up with Akane, and the pink-haired girl had no intention of checking in on her other hospitalized teammate. "Hey, Tenten-chan, it's me!" Naruto strode into the room, relieved to discover that Tenten had the bed closest to the door; if he was lucky, the person in the room's second bed would not get involved in his visit. Judging by the fact that a thick bundle of sheets with no visible head currently occupied the other bed, Naruto was cautiously optimistic about his odds of success.

"Naruto-kun!" A bruised and clearly worn out Tenten tried to get out of her bed to greet him, but could not quite manage it. The girl had an impressive collection of food in front of her, and Naruto vaguely recalled something about food being good for people who suffered from chakra depletion. Taking note of Naruto's concerned expression, Tenten gave him a reassuring smile. "I'm just tired and sore. A bit of rest and I'll be back to normal." Tenten's gaze shifted to Sakura and she shot the other girl a quizzical look. "Haruno-san?"

"Oh yeah, Sakura-chan came with me; her team got stuck in the middle of the fight between Itachi's partner and Gaara. She's even buying me ramen later."

"It's to thank Naruto-kun for saving me." Sakura added the slightest hint of challenge to her voice as she made the declaration. _The two of them are close, but are they just good teammates, or is this girl going to be a love rival like Ino-pig was with Sasuke?_

Tenten tossed a surprised look at Naruto as she took note of the honorifics the two of them used. _When did they get so friendly?_ "That sounds like Naruto." Tenten paused to eat a bite of sushi before she added. "He's always rushing in and saving helpless people."

Sakura blinked in surprised, and then glared at the girl as the implied insult sank in. Before she could think of an appropriately cutting response, Naruto spoke up. "Hey, by the way Tenten-chan, when did you learn how to use fire chakra?" Naruto knew the girl had been doing a fair bit of private practice while he was busy being the old man Hokage's errand boy, but he had not expected her to accomplish that much. "Lemme guess; you were trying to come up with a way to counter that jutsu of mine that stopped all your weapons?"

"Yeah, fire beats wind. No way I was going to let you keep beating me in our sparring matches" Tenten smirked at the jinchuriki. "Too bad I had to give away my trump card; I was really looking forward to beating you when we met up during the final round of the Exams." Tenten glowered down at the ground and grumbled. "It took me six months just to figure out how to infuse my weapons with elemental chakra, and now the surprise is ruined." Tenten glared at Naruto, though the boy tell she was not being serious about it. "You mastered wind in less time than it took me to figure out one aspect of using elemental chakra, and fire's supposed to be lot easier to get started with than wind. Your shadow clones are so unfair."

"Yeah, yeah, I know I'm awesome." Naruto gave a confident smirk and chuckled. "I bet that when I win the tournament I'll do it in such a badass way that the old man'll finally realize I oughta be the Hokage instead of him." Naruto did not really expect that to happen, and after seeing how much crap the Sarutobi had to put up with in the course of the job Naruto was beginning to think it would not be as much fun as he had initially expected, but the idea of taking the Hokage's seat made for a funny joke.

"Dammit Tenten." An irate voice called out from the other bed. The covers fell back to reveal a blue-haired girl whose scarred face was twisted into its usual scowl. "Stop inflating your boyfriend's head; his ego's bad enough without anyone encouraging him." Maeko glared across the room at Naruto, and then settled back under the covers of her bed. "And keep it down, I'm trying to sleep."

"Hey, speaking of people suddenly pulling unexpected elemental abilities out of nowhere…" Naruto began.

"Shut up Uzumaki." A hint of warning entered Maeko's voice.

"No, seriously, where the hell did that Kekkei Genkai come from?" Naruto regarded the girl quizzically. "'Cause, I don't even like you that much, but I gotta admit that blasting people with freaking laser beams is kinda cool. Why didn't you ever use that before?"

"Uzumaki. Stop. Talking. Now."

Naruto paused for a moment, then shrugged and decided to the let the matter drop. Even if he was still a bit curious about it, Maeko had made it abundantly clear that she was not going to tell him anything.

"Try to just ignore her." Tenten shot an annoyed look in Maeko's direction. "She's been even bitchier than usual ever since she woke up." Tenten shrugged, and returned her attention to her food.

"I can hear you." Maeko snarled.

"So, Naruto." Tenten blithely ignored Maeko's complaint. "How did you end up not only managing to beat Itachi, but then still have enough left in you to save Haruno-san as well?"

"Um … I didn't exactly beat Itachi." Naruto nervously rubbed the back of his head nervously, and took a cautionary step away from Tenten. "I kinda … well, I surrendered to him so that he'd leave the rest of you alone, and then I managed to get away from him later to save Sakura-chan."

"What?" Tenten asked flatly, dropping a piece of sushi that was halfway to her mouth back onto the plate.

"Well, I had to give myself up, or he would've – OW!" Tenten's plate of half-eaten sushi slamming into his face cut off the rest of Naruto's explanation. Within the next fifteen seconds Naruto dodged a pair of chopsticks, a skewer of dumplings, and got clipped on the shoulder by a bowl of rice. Luckily for Naruto, that exhausted Tenten's supply of useful throwing objects, and after a couple seconds of frustrated searching for anything else to throw at him, the girl settled for fixing him with a death glare.

"Um … Sorry?" Naruto's apology sounded a bit lame even to his own ears, probably because he was only apologizing to calm Tenten down. He did what he had to do to keep Tenten and the rest of his friends safe. Tenten might not like it, but Naruto could deal with a pissed-off Tenten much more easily than he could with a dead one. In any case, Naruto's apology seemed to have no effect on the girl, who continued to glare murderously at him.

"Naruto, what the hell were you thinking?" Tenten finally burst out. "Never mind, I know exactly what you were thinking!" The girl snapped before her friend could even try to answer her question. "You stupid, noble, idiotic, self-sacrificing bastard!"

"Hey, Tenten-chan, I was just trying to –"

"I know what you were doing, Naruto!" Tenten cut him off, fixing the boy with a death glare in lieu of throwing anything else at him. "Idiot. I swear, as soon as I'm better, I'm going track you down and kick your ass!"

"Geez, what was I supposed to do?" Naruto shot back, starting to feel a little annoyed by his best friend's anger. "We couldn't win that fight, Tenten-chan, and he woulda killed everyone else there if I didn't go along with what he wanted. It's not like I'm just gonna let some asshole kill you when there's still something I can do to save you!"

"Naruto, you're an idiot." Tenten matched Naruto's petulant glare with her own rage. "How do you think I'd be able to live with myself knowing you got yourself killed doing something like that? Did you even stop for one second to think about how you running off like a moron and getting yourself killed would make me feel?"

"Tenten-chan, I-"

"You're gonna get yourself killed doing some stupid heroic thing, and probably saving my life and a bunch of other people's lives in the process." Tenten carried on over Naruto's attempt to explain himself, too caught up in her own words to notice that Naruto was trying to speak. "I swear, if you get yourself trying to protect me, I will never, ever, forgive you. Don't you ever do something like that again." Tenten's voice several octaves as she shouted at Naruto. "Do you understand? Never do anything like that again!"

"But, Tenten-chan." Naruto hesitantly approached the girl, keeping his voice soft and quiet in contrast to Tenten's shouting. "How d'you think I'd feel if you were the one in danger?"

"Geez, just make out already!" Maeko shouted from her bed, jarring the Naruto and Tenten's attention away from each other. Maeko angrily stuffed a pillow over her head, and burrowed down further underneath her covers. "You guys are so annoying sometimes."

"Um … Naruto-kun, Tenten-san?" Sakura offered hesitantly. The pink-haired girl had been more than a little uncomfortable being stuck on the sidelines listening to the heated and at times quite loud argument between Naruto and his teammate. "I think you might want to keep things down; we are in a hospital."

Naruto let out a rueful chuckle and one of his hands danced nervously over the back of his head. "Yeah, I guess we were making a lot of noise, weren't we?" Returning his attention fully to Tenten, Naruto decided to settle things there before they started arguing again. "So, I guess I'll see you later then, Tenten?" Naruto offered hesitantly. The boy was not entirely sure what he ought to do at the moment, but he figured that after their disagreement he ought to end things on a positive note. "Maybe we can get together tomorrow and work on our combo jutsu some more; it's cool, but we need to get it working faster."

"Yeah, sure, fine. Go." Tenten agreed, adopting a tone that managed to make a strained effort to convey amicability while doing little to conceal her simmering anger. "Go have fun with Sakura-chan." Tenten's effort to present a façade of friendliness slipped when she spat out the honorific on the end of Sakura's name. "I hope you two have a great time." Tenten's tone made it clear she hoped nothing of the sort.

"Um … are you still mad at me, Tenten-chan?"

"No, I'm not mad at all." Naruto was a long way from an expert when it came to girls, but even he could tell that Tenten was not happy with him. _Geez, why's she saying she's not mad at me when she's obviously pissed? Girls are weird._

* * *

"So what's the deal with you and Tenten-san anyway?"

A bunch of precious Ichiraku ramen went down the wrong way as soon as Naruto heard that question leave Sakura's lips. Aside from the whole almost-choking thing, this was actually useful, since the minute or so spent coughing gave him some time actually process that question. "Tenten-chan's my friend."

Sakura met his eyes. "Just a friend?"

"I … well … I dunno." Naruto fumbled. "It's .. complicated."

"Well, I'll try to keep things simple then." Sakura could feel a blush building up in her cheeks and nervous butterflies in her stomach, but pressed on regardless. "I like you. You seem like a nice guy, and you did save my life and all, so … well…" What courage the pink-haired girl had mustered slowly slipped away. "Well, that is … if you wanna … well, I'd like to … you know …"

Naruto set down his chopsticks, totally ignoring his ramen. "Um … wow. That's … wow. I mean … wow. I've … well, I'll be honest, this is kinda new for me."

"Yeah, me too." Sakura nervously poked her ramen a few times with her chopsticks. She was a little surprised to find out nobody had made a move on Naruto yet; sure, the whole jinchuriki thing would scare off a lot of people, but after what happened in Kirigakure it was pretty clear that Naruto was going to have a pretty impressive ninja career. Then again, considering how close he was with Tenten, that might have scared off any other girls who might have been interested. "So … um … do you wanna …"

"I … I dunno. I mean, this is kinda sudden, and this has been a pretty crazy day, and then there's the exams and everything, and … well … stuff."

"Oh." Sakura worried at her lower lip and studied her ramen bowl. "Well, I guess I understand if you don't…"

"No, no, it's not like that." Naruto quickly interrupted the girl. "Heck, I actually used to kinda have a bit of a crush on you a couple years ago." The confession drew a nervous chuckle out of the boy. "It's just … well, can you maybe give me a little time to sort everything out?"

"Oh. Alright." The two of them fell into a companionable silence for a bit until Sakura spoke up again. "Although … I don't know what's going to happen with the exams now. I mean, they might just cancel them after what happened in the Forest."

"Nah, I don't think they'd do that. I mean, the Chunin Exam is about a lot more than just figuring out who' gonna get promoted. Really, the main point of it is just to show off how good the current crop of new young ninjas is; we've got people coming in from all across the continent to see the exam. No way they'd cancel it; if they did, Konoha'd look weak and we'd probably lose a bunch of potential clients."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess so." Sakura blinked in surprise as a sudden thought struck her. "We might end up fighting each other in the exam." If that happened, Sakura was pretty sure she was doomed. Then again, she didn't think she was going to have much of a chance of winning against any other opponent either.

Naruto let out a little chuckle at that revelation. "See, that's another reason why it's a good idea to put the whole dating thing off. Gonna be hard enough to have to fight against you now that we're friends; if we were actually … you know … then it'd be even worse."

"What about if you get matched up against Tenten?"

"Oh, I'm not worried about that; Tenten and I spar all the time. This time, we'll just have an audience. Same thing with Bushy Brows. What about you? Worried about fighting your teammates?"

"No." Sakura glowered down at her ramen bowl. "I doubt Akane's going to be better in time for the tournament, and Uchiha…" Sakura said nothing more, but her grip tightened on her chopsticks to the point where the wood groaned in protest.

"Oh." The mood at Ichiraku's dropped considerably, and after a moment Naruto decided he needed to bring it back up. "Anyways, I've got a good feeling about this tournament; in fact, I've already got a new training plan in mind that's gonna let me kick ass and win for sure..."

* * *

Meanwhile back at the hospital, Kakashi Hatake was on his way to check up on his wounded student. If it were up to him, he would have been there hours ago, but taking care of the aftermath of the Akatsuki attack took priority. As far as Konoha was concerned, the needs of the village took priority over a sensei's desire to check up on a wounded student.

Technically, he wasn't supposed to visit Akane until tomorrow morning; visitor's hours had ended a few hours ago. A little technicality like that wasn't about to stop a Jonin like Kakashi Hatake though. Sure, he had already gotten a report on Akane from one of the medical ninjas, but just getting a report wasn't good enough when it came to his students. He wouldn't be satisfied until he saw her with his own eyes.

The hospital had mostly shut down for the night; there were still night nurses and a few medical ninjas on standby, but lights were out and everyone was trying to keep quiet; hospital patients need their rest, after all. That just made it even easier for Kakashi to do his sneaking.

It didn't take him long to find Akane's room, but once he got there he discovered that he wasn't the only person to decide that he didn't have to obey the hospital's rules about visiting hours. "I didn't expect to find you here, Sasuke."

The Uchiha boy, sitting slumped down in a chair next to Akane's bed, said nothing. At first Kakashi thought the boy was just being his usual silent self but considering the beating Sasuke had received at Itachi's hands, perhaps it was just a case of the boy being in no condition to speak.

Considering his injuries, the fact that Sasuke had actually managed to get all the way to this part of the hospital undetected was impressive. Kakashi had enough experience with broken ribs to know that the last thing you wanted to do with that kind of injury was move around, especially the sort of fast, careful movements that you had to make in order to be stealthy.

Kakashi stepped up to the bedside, and couldn't help but flinch when he saw the bandage-shrouded form of his student. He'd been a ninja for a long time, and seen plenty of injured comrades over the years, but seeing one of his own students in this state was one hardest things he had ever faced. Fixing his other student with a cold look through his one visible eye, Kakashi asked a simple question. "Was it worth it?"

"No." The single word was laced with pain, and Kakashi hoped that not all the pain was coming from Sasuke's broken ribs and other physical injuries.

"The final round of the Chunin Exam is in one month. The genin who participated in fighting off the Akatsuki incursion will fight in the tournament. Even if you have recovered enough to fight, you will not be participating in the tournament. I'm sure you understand why."

"Yes."

"Do you have anything else to say for yourself.?"

"No." The boy fell silent for a few seconds, before adding. "Akane. Will she recover?"

"The medical ninjas were hopeful, though even if she lives... Her spine was damaged. She won't walk again."

Kakashi had not been sure how to handle Sasuke's actions in the Forest of Death. The very first lesson Kakashi taught his students was the importance of supporting your teammates, and Sasuke had violated that principle in the most horrifying way possible. When he had first learned what Sasuke had done, Kakashi had all but made up his mind to kick the Uchiha off his team at the very least, and possibly even look into criminal charges against the boy.

Now, things had changed. Sasuke had made a terrible mistake. He had put his desire for revenge above the loyalty he should have shown his fellow teammates. As terrible as that was, it was a mistake that Kakashi could empathize with. He knew from personal experience how easy it was to be consumed by the desire for revenge and vindication, to let all that anger and hate boil over.

In the end, Sasuke had made a mistake. More importantly, he had learned from his mistake.

"If anything like this ever happens again, it won't just be the end of your ninja career. Do you understand me, Sasuke? This never happens again."

"I understand. Never again."

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry about going dead for a while. Life got crazy on me, and then I got a big case of writer's block. However, once I started up on Soul's Light (my Dresden Files/Evangelion crossover, which you should totally read if you like either one of those series), it got my creativity flowing again, and before long I was started getting ideas on how to get this fic moving again.

You might note that the chapter length has been cut down a bit; 10k+ chapters are nice and epic, but 5k ones are a lot more manageable when it comes to writing.

If I were in a complaining mood, I could also complain about the fact that Kishimoto decided to do "Naruto masters the Nine-Tails with help from Killer Bee" arc that wound up undercutting many of my story concepts. Lucky for me, I can be flexible with my planning.

Also, there's an image link in my profile that some will find amusing.


	18. Resolved

Don't own Naruto

* * *

It had taken two days to sort out who would be participating in the final round of the Chunin Exams. While the decision had already been made to put the four teams that ran into the Akatsuki into the final round, there was no reason to actually settle the tournament arrangement until the medical ninjas determined who would be fit to participate.

12 Genin had faced the two S-ranked rogues from Akatsuki. However, Akane's injuries were severe enough to put her entire ninja career in doubt, so obviously she wouldn't be participating. Sasuke was also out, disqualified from the finals for conduct unbecoming of a shinobi of Konoha. That cut the number of Genin in the tournament down to ten. Neji and Masaru also wound up getting cut out of the finals on medical ground; apparently, the medic-ninjas didn't think either of them would be completely recovered from their injuries in time for the finals. Unsurprisingly, Neji and Masaru had objected to this conclusion, but it's not like they were the first young ninjas to complain about being stuck in the hospital healing when they'd rather be out fighting. The medics didn't want to risk either one of them going into the tournament at less than 100% and possibly reinjuring themselves badly enough to permanently damage their ninja abilities, and when it came to medical issues even the Hokage didn't like to go against the medic-ninjas.

Normally the Genin would have drawn their numbers for the final round after passing through the Forest of Death, but normally the second round of the Chunin Exam wasn't interrupted a couple of hours in by S-ranked criminals. Due to the circumstances, the drawing was taking place in the Hokage's office. With two full Genin teams, two odd Genin out, the four Jonin-senseis, the Hokage himself, Iruka, and a Jonin named Hayate who wasgoing to be running the tournament, the office was once again fairly crowded.

Naruto couldn't help throwing frequent nervous glances in Tenten's direction while they waited. Prior to his talk with Sakura the other day, he had been more or less alright with just letting things develop as they would with Tenten. It hadn't seemed terribly urgent to figure out whether or not Tenten liked him that way, it was enough for the boy that Tenten liked him. That's not to say he hadn't wondered about the matter, and imagined what it would be like if she was interested in him that way, but he hadn't felt any serious urgency about getting the matter sorted out.

Now, that was about to change. Just waiting to see how things worked out was fine when Tenten was the only girl in his life, but now there was another girl in the mix. Like any normal boy his age, Naruto like the idea of having a girlfriend. Tenten was his first choice, but if wanted to just stay friends, he wasn't going to pass up on Sakura's stated interest. She was cute, and seemed nice enough, so why not?

Besides, until he got this whole thing worked out one way or the other, there was no way he could focus on his training for the tournament. Especially with the training he had in mind, the last thing he needed was to be distracted at a critical moment by his girl troubles.

That would have to wait until after the selection though. Naruto was not about to try and strike up that particular conversation in the Hokage's office in front of more than a dozen spectators.

It was hard not to wonder who he'd up against first. Lee would certainly be a fun opponent; they'd sparred often enough that it would definitely be interesting, especially after seeing some of the tricks Lee had pulled in the fight against Itachi; Lee had been the only one of the Genin to actually land a hit on the rogue Uchiha, after all. Gaara would naturally be interesting as well; facing off against another jinchuriki his own age would give him the perfect chance to measure his own growth. Either one of Gaara's siblings should also give him an interesting fight. Even Maeko actually seemed like she might make a credible opponent since she'd somehow pulled a Bloodline Limit out of her ass.

The only potential pitfall was that, depending on how things worked out, going up against Tenten or Sakura could be really awkward. After all, fighting the girl he was going to be dating later would just be weird. Should he hold back to keep from hurting her? Then again, Tenten would probably get mad at him if he pulled his punches; she always hated it when Naruto fought at less than full strength. Would Sakura be the same way if he wound up with her instead? And what if he ended up fighting against the girl he wasn't dating, but still wanted to be friends with? Why did this all have to be so complicated?

Unknowing and uncaring of Naruto's dilemma, time continued to progress, and each of the Genin stepped forward in alphabetical order to draw a number out of the box. Having the terrible misfortune of bearing a last name that started with the letter U, Naruto was the last person to draw and the only number left in the box was six.

Once that was done, each Genin announced which number they had, and Naruto noticed Iruka writing something down, which unsurprisingly turned out to be the tournament tree.

Round 1: Gaara vs. Kankuro

Round 2: Rock Lee vs. Temari

Round 3: Maeko Kimura vs. Naruto Uzumaki

Round 4: Sakura Haruno vs. Tenten

Once he saw who he'd be facing in the first round, Naruto shot a glance Maeko's way, and got a contemptuous sneer that the girl's scarred face made look particularly nasty for his troubel. If the boy was honest with himself, having the chance to fight someone as caustic and generally unpleasant as Maeko was more than a little appealing; she'd been pretty nasty to him as long as he'd known her.

In fact, she was so nasty he kinda had to wonder what exactly her deal was anyway. Sure, there had been plenty of kids who'd picked up a dislike of Naruto from their parents and taken advantage of the boy being an outcast, and at first Naruto had just assumed Maeko was another one of the crowd. However, she hadn't changed her mind about him one bit after learning the truth about the fact that he was a jinchuriki, and now that he had a bit more perspective Naruto was pretty sure she hadn't really singled him out, he'd just caught part of the general unpleasantness she showed everyone.

Considering that, it was hard not to be a bit curious what her deal was. After all, most girls don't really set out to make themselves as unlikeable as humanly possible. If he had the time, he would have to do a bit of digging; right now, he didn't really know anything about Maeko except for her generally nasty attitude and the fact that the had a Kekkei Genkai nobody had known about.

Naruto dropped the issue of Maeko for the moment, and took a look around the room. Unsurprisingly, the rest of the Genin had been doing much the same thing that he had, and were sizing up their own opponents.

Tenten and Sakura would be an interesting match too. Not because the two girls would be a relatively even match for each other; Sakura might be competent but she was nowhere near Tenten's level, but because of the connection both girls had to Naruto. The young jinchuriki made a mental note that he probably shouldn't mention to Tenten that Sakura had asked him out; that could end up going very, very badly for the pink-haired girl.

The Sand jinchuriki going up against his brother could also be bad; from Naruto had seen of them so far, they didn't exactly have a healthy sibling relationship, and in a tournament fight nobody would stop Gaara from killing an opponent unless he was being gratuitously cruel about it. Then again, Gaara wasn't giving off the same 'psycho killer who wants to rip you in half and bathe in your blood' vibe Naruto had gotten from him last time, so maybe everything that happened in the Forest of Death had mellowed him out a bit.

Lee would be going up against the girl out of the Sand trio. Naruto like Lee's odds there; from what Sakura had said the girl was a wind user, and his matches against Naruto meant Lee would have some experience against her methods, while she probably hadn't ever faced a pure Taijutsu user like Lee before.

After that, round 2 would almost certainly put him up against Tenten, and then if he won that he'd have to face either Lee or Gaara in the finals. Well, the tournament would have been boring if it was too easy to win.

The Hokage asked a perfunctory "Any questions?" When none of the Genin said anything, the Hokage continued. "In that case, the tournament will be four weeks from now. Spend the time resting, training, and preparing yourselves. Remember, you're fighting not just for your own advancement, but for the honor and reputation of your villages as well."

"So, no pressure." Naruto faux-whispered, earning himself reproving glares from just about everyone, even the people who had to struggle against the urge to hide a smile at the joke.

Sarutobi gave Naruto an arch look. "Now, if nobody has anything worthwhile to say…" Nobody did. "Then I'll see you all at the tournament. Train well, and good luck."

The Genin and their senseis filed out of the Hokage's office. The Sand team left without another word, but the three Konoha teams (though two of the teams were just a single Genin and a sensei) didn't part ways quite that quickly.

Since fortune had put him in the same room as Kakashi, Gai couldn't resist the gold opportunity to issue a challenge to his eternal rival. "Kakashi! Before we start training our brilliant students, I think we should have a race around Konoha to inspire them to new heights of greatness! In order to be truly inspiring we will need to run at least a thousand laps…"

"I don't think our students need that kind of inspiration." Kakashi shot a one-eyed glace at Sakura. "You're already feeling plenty inspired, aren't you?"

"Yes?" Sakura sounded more uncertain and confused than inspired, a mistake commonly made by people who don't have enough experience with Gai.

Naturally, Gai wasn't about to let an uninspired student go without his help. "I know what we should do Kakashi! Let's make it a three legged-race! That way, our students can share in our inspiration, and reach new heights of training!" Gai frowned. "Of course, since there will two-person teams racing, we'll also need to double the number of laps!" Gain turned to Tenten. "Since you'll be facing off against Kakashi's student, naturally you will be my partner. Now then – Where are you going Tenten?"

"To get rope to tie our legs together." Tenten shouted back over her shoulder, not slowing her withdrawal for a moment. "We can't have a three-legged race without rope."

"Good thinking, my youthful student!" Gai called out at Tenten's retreating back. The Jonin-sensei smiled to himself. "I'm glad to see she's so enthusiastic about this."

"Or she's just running away before you could drag her into one of your crazy contests." Kakashi commented idly.

"Don't be ridiculous Kakashi, one of my students would never back down from a chance to participate in one of my special challenges." Gai grinned, and shot a thumbs-up at his other two students. "Isn't that right, my exuberantly youthful and wonderfully beautiful students? Lee, you and Naruto can be each other's partners and participate in the race as well!"

"I'm going to go help Tenten find the rope." Naruto hastily volunteered, before he fled the scene.

"Such enthusiasm! My students must be really fired up for this challenge!"

"Sakura, maybe you should go find some rope for the race too." Kakashi deadpanned.

"Oh! Right, Kakashi-sensei." The pink haired girl wasted no time taking advantage of the out the jonin provided her with.

A couple seconds after Sakura left, Kakashi spoke up again "Darn, I forgot that I moved the rope to somewhere different from where I usually keep it. I better go tell Sakura that." Before Gai could answer, Kakashi used a quick Body Flicker to disappear from the area.

Gai was about to invite Maeko and her sensei to join the training exercise, but sadly the two of them had already departed as well. Gai was briefly saddened that only six people would be participating in his race. As a good student, it was practically Lee's duty to cheer his sensei up. "Gai-sensei! I already have some rope!"

"Ah! Very good Lee!" Gai glanced around the area, and then leaned forward to whisper conspiratorially with his most youthful student. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Lee?"

Lee smiled and eagerly nodded. "While everyone else is getting rope for the race, we can do a few warm-up laps!"

"Truly, your youthfulness is an inspiration to me, Lee!" Gai impulsively hugged Lee. "Now, if we hurry maybe we'll have time to finish a dozen laps around Konoha before the others get here!"

"I'm sure we can manage at least twenty laps, Gai-sensei!"

"That's the spirit, Lee!"

* * *

Naruto eventually found Tenten hiding in one of the public parks that was as far away as possible from any of Konoha's training grounds. It wasn't the first time she'd taken refuge here when Gai got just a little bit too enthusiastic for her to handle.

It didn't take Naruto long to realize that if he wanted to have that talk with Tenten this would probably be his best chance. Tenten might try to avoid some of Gai's crazier training challenges, but she was still a big believer in working hard, and Naruto was going to have his own training schedule to keep himself busy as well, and since if everything went according to plan he was going to be doing his own special training instead of working with Gai. Even if the two of them did manage to cross paths once they started training, they'd both be way too tired to deal with a big issue like – well – dating and stuff.

So, if Naruto seriously was seriously going to see if she liked him that way, this was his best chance. He needed to go talk to her. He was going to go talk to her. Right now. Well, not right now right now, but definitely soon.

Naruto gave a quick shake of his head. What was wrong with him? He'd faced off against plenty of nasty, scary things before, and he'd never let himself give in to fear before. Of course, in a lot of ways, Tenten was a lot scarier than the likes of Yugito and Yagura. What if she didn't feel the same way? What if he said the wrong thing, and she wound up deciding she didn't want to be friends anymore? What if…

"You know what, screw what if!" Naruto growled to himself under his breath. "If keep thinking about what if, I'm never gonna do this!"

Naruto took a deep breath, and walked over to take a seat on the bench next to Tenten. The girl smiled when she saw him. "Hey. Good to see you got away."

"Yeah, I'm helping you find some rope."

"Funny thing, I can't seem to find any rope for the race." Tenten gave an impressively over-the-top sigh. "Such a pity, but I'm afraid that by the time I find something that would work, the race will have already started without me."

Naruto let out a chuckle. "I'm sure you'll find a way to deal with your sorrow at missing the chance to run two thousand laps around Konoha while tied to Gai-sensei." Naruto took a deep breath, and nervously adjusted the collar of his jumpsuit. "Um, hey Tenten?"

"Yeah?"

"Um, there's uh, something I wanna talk to you about."

"What?" Tenten looked over at him curiously, and couldn't help letting out a little laugh. "What is it Naruto? You're blushing."

"No I'm not!" The boy automatically denied. "Anyway, do you wanna go out on a date some time?" Naruto hastily blurted out before he could get nervous enough to mess this up somehow.

There. It was done. He'd said it. No going back now. The die was cast.

Tenten just stared at him for a long, awkward minute, and then very quietly asked. "Could you repeat that Naruto? I don't think I heard it right."

"I uh, I asked you out on a date." It wasn't as scary saying it the second time.

"Oh. That's what I thought you'd asked."

After saying that, Tenten just sat there, silently. Naruto didn't want to pester her for an answer, but when she'd spent an entire minute just sitting there with a blank look on her face, his nerves started catching up with him again. "So … do you wanna?"

Tenten blinked, and re-focused her attention on Naruto. Very slowly, the girl said. "I – I don't think that would be a very good idea, Naruto. I mean, it could really mess up our friendship."

That … was not the answer he'd been hoping for. He could've just accepted her answer and left it at that, but Naruto Uzumaki never gave up on something he cared about without a fight. "I don't get it. Why would going out on a date mess up our friendship?"

"Because we wouldn't be friends anymore." The girl answered, as if it were completely obvious.

"Um, yeah we would." Naruto countered. "We'd just be friends who also go out on dates and stuff."

"I don't think it works that way, Naruto."

"Why not?" The boy shot back.

"Because boyfriends and girlfriends are boyfriends and girlfriends, not friends."

"I don't get it." Naruto frowned at the girl "Is there some reason we can't be both?"

"Things don't work that way, Naruto." Tenten sighed. "It's just … our friendship means way too much for me to let dating get involved and mess everything up."

"I'm still really not getting it." Naruto insisted stubbornly. "Why do you think going on a date is suddenly gonna screw up the fact that we've been friends for years?"

"Well, it's –" Tenten cut herself off, and took a deep breath. "Loo, if we started dating it would add all kinds of new elements to a friendship that's been working fine just the way it is. It'll change everything."

"Sure, stuff'd change, but we'd still be friends. We'd just be friends who also, you know, do couple stuff."

"It's not that simple Naruto." Tenten insisted. "What if things don't work out? What if we go out on a date, and end up deciding that we were better off as friends after all? What if it goes horribly wrong and we end up hating each other?"

"What if a giant rock falls down from the sky and squishes the both of us right now?" Naruto shot back. "We could spend all our lives not doing anything because we're too busy asking ourselves 'What if?' I dunno know about you, but that's not the way I wanna do things. So how about instead of going on and on about what if or talking about how it'll somehow ruin our friendship even though neither one of us would ever want something like that to happen, why don't we actually think about stuff that matters."

"Well, maybe you don't care, but I think the fact that his could completely screw up our friendship is pretty important!" Tenten snapped.

"And I still don't get why you think it's somehow gonna automatically screw everything up."

"You don't pay any attention to these kinds of things, do you?" Tenten's tone was almost disparaging. "Look, if you actually paid any attention, you'd notice that most girls who are all boy-crazy end up changing their minds about which boy they like every five minutes."

"Right, and if you go out on a date with me you're totally gonna have a complete personality change and start acting like that."

"Don't be stupid Naruto." Tenten sighed. "You know what I'm talking about."

"I think it's pretty clear by now that I don't."

Tenten let out a frustrated sigh. "Look, let's say we did go out on a couple of dates, and things don't work out. Trying to still be friends after something like that is going to be really, really awkward."

"Maybe it would." Naruto agreed. "But there's two things wrong with the way you're thinking about it. First off, I've already said there's no point worrying about all that what if crap. Maybe it won't work, or maybe it'll work out great; we aren't gonna know unless we try. Other thing is, even if we end up deciding we don't wanna date, I'm pretty sure we could handle that. We've been friends for a long time, and we've had to deal with all kinds of stuff. If things don't work out, I'm pretty sure that after having to deal with things like finding out I've got a demon sealed me, we can handle a little bit of awkwardness."

Tenten opened her mouth, and then closed it again. After repeating this process again a few seconds later, she remained silent, refusing to meet Naruto's eyes. Naruto decided to press his case. "Look, let's forget all that other crap; do you like me like that, or not?"

Tenten hesitated, and sighed again before answering his question. "Look, it's not that I don't like you, I do. You're a great guy, really, and whatever girl winds up with you is going to lucky, but it won't be me."

"So you do like me?" Naruto asked.

"That's not the point." Tenten shot back.

"Um, yeah, it kinda is." The boy stubbornly maintained.

"You're impossible."

"And you like impossible guys."

Tenten let out a frustrated groan tinged with the tiniest hint of amusement. "You're never going to let that go, are you? You're just going to keep hammering me with that line until you break me down."

"You know how it is." Naruto grinned at the girl. "I'm too stupid to know how to quit. And you like stupid guys."

"Yeah, you are, and I guess there's no point denying that I do." Tenten groaned again. "I don't suppose you'd let me take that back."

"No take-backs." Naruto shot back with a grin.

Tenten finally met his eyes. "If – if we do this, it is going to change everything. We can't just turn back the clock, and pretend none of this ever happened."

"Yeah." The two of them went quiet for a minute, until Naruto put words to his thoughts. "Scary, isn't it?"

"Scary as hell." Tenten agreed. After another, less awkward silence, Tenten looked over at Naruto and said with a very slight smile. "I thought you weren't afraid of anything."

"Guess being scared of messing things up with you gets to be an exception." Naruto let out a weak chuckle. "I nearly chickened out of saying anything to you."

"So, I'm the only thing in the world that scares the fearless Naruto Uzumaki?" Tenten asked with a grin "I guess I should be flattered."

"Guess so." The two of them fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes.

Naruto was the one to eventually break the silence. "So … we're boyfriend and girlfriend now, right?"

Tenten flushed slightly as she answered. "Um … I guess so."

"Huh." Naruto gave a slight frown. "Doesn't seem very different."

"No, it doesn't." Tenten agreed, sounding halfway between confused and disappointed.

"Are we doing something wrong?" Naruto asked uncertainly

"How would I know?" Tenten demanded. "I've never had a boyfriend before."

"Well, I've never had a girlfriend before." The two of them lapsed into silence again, until a thought struck Naruto. "Um …" Naruto fidgeted uncomfortably. "Aren't we supposed to kiss or something?"

"I don't think we do that until we've gone on a few dates." Tenten answered uncertainly.

"Oh, right." Naruto nodded vigorously. "So … should we go on a date or something?"

"Um, yeah, I guess we've got time to while Gai-sensei's distracted." Tenten offered.

"Oh. Good." Naruto considered what little he knew about dating. "Um, I'm supposed to buy you flowers and take you somewhere really nice and special, right?"

"I think that's what you're supposed to do." Tenten agreed. "I'm not big on flowers though, and honestly, right now I'm terrified enough as it is without us going to some expensive place we've never eaten before and stuff. How about we just go get some ramen?"

"Ramen sounds good." Naruto agreed. He shot a nervous smile at Tenten, and she smiled back, just as nervously.

The two of them walked Ichiraku's in a comfortable silence, and ordered their usuals. Eventually, Tenten spoke up. "So, you're up against Maeko in the first round. Looking forward to getting to beat the crap out of the super-bitch?"

"I dunno." Naruto said uncertainly. "I mean, I'm kinda starting to wonder what her deal is."

"Her deal is that she's a nasty piece of work." Tenten answered.

"Well yeah, but why's she like that? Most people don't try so hard to be mean to just about everybody. It doesn't make sense." Naruto frowned down into his ramen. "And then there's that whole thing with her elemental combination Kekkei Genkai. I mean, from what I understand of how those things work, just being born with one of those means she should be a seriously badass ninjutsu user. I mean, being able to use two different elemental natures is usually enough to qualify someone as an A-ranked ninjutsu user."

"Yeah, you'd think with an advantage like that she'd be shoving it in everyone's faces and constantly rubbing it in that it'd take them years of work to even start to approach the level of skill she was born with." Tenten scowled. "It's taken me six months just to figure out a couple basic applications of fire chakra like imbuing weapons, and she gets born knowing how to use two different natures. How is that supposed to be fair?"

"If it'll make you feel better, we could turn you into a jinchuriki so you could train real fast with shadow clones like I did." Naruto offered. "Don't think there's any beasts without a host running around right now though; the Three Tails won't re-manifest for a few years yet. I guess you could try stealing someone's but that kinda kills the current host, so…"

"I guess we could steal Yugito's." Tenten suggested. "But I think I'll pass; the whole having a demon sealed inside you thing comes with a few too many drawbacks, especially for women, for me to get one just so I can learn to use elemental chakra a bit faster. If I have to deal with people who've got some kind of natural advantage, then I'll just be that much better than they are."

Naruto chuckled. "Kick ass when someone got a natural advantage over you by just trying even harder than usual? That sounds like the kinda thing Gai-sensei would say."

Tenten fixed Naruto with a venomous glare. "Don't even joke about things like that."

Naruto held up a placating hand. "Alright, alright, you're nothing like Gai-sensei."

"Too right." Tenten gave a satisfied nod, and returned to her ramen.

Following her example, Naruto finished off his own bowl of ramen, and resumed the conversation while he waited for Teuchi to finish making him a second helping. "Anyway, getting back Maeko, You're right that it's weird she never mentioned it at all. I don't think her teammates knew anything about it either, and she got pissed, when I tried talking about it. Well, more pissed off than usual, anyway, 'cause she's pretty much always pissed off."

"Another weird thing," Tenten added. "I heard she got it from a runaway genin her squad had to track down. A cut deep enough to leave that much of a scar must have hurt like hell, not to mention most girls would get pretty mad about having their face ruined like that, and even then she didn't use her Kekkei Genkai, either to protect herself or just to win the fight." Tenten frowned down at her ramen for a bit, and then brightened slightly as an idea occurred. "When do people normally learn to use Kekkei Genkai anyway? I think I heard somewhere that they'll often manifest in life-threatening situations, so maybe she didn't even have it until right then in the Forest of Death."

Naruto shook his head. "The combination ones usually show up pretty early, her not getting it until she was thirteen would be weird. Plus, I'd figure even If it hadn't come in yet, back when she was the dead last at the Academy she'd have been telling everyone that it was only once her bloodline limit hadn't manifested yet, and once it did she'd be a total badass." With a final shrug, Naruto said. "The whole thing's kinda weird, really. I mean, since I'm gonna fight her and all I'd like to figure out what her deal is. There's gotta be somebody who knows; what about her parents?"

Tenten shrugged. "Never met them, don't know anything about them. Considering how she turned out they obviously didn't do a very good job." The girl shot a mock-glare at the Naruto. "Should I be worried that we're halfway through our first date and you've mostly been talking about another girl?"

Naruto flinched and let out a distressed cry. "Don't even joke about that, Tenten. Yeah, I'm kinda curious about her, but that doesn't change the fact that she's …" Naruto struggled to find some word that would properly express exactly what the blue-haired girl was, and couldn't find anything that worked. "Well, she's Maeko." The jinchuriki concluded lamely.

"Point takien." Tenten conceded. "At least my opponent's no mystery. From what I've heard, Sakura's a decent ninja, but doesn't really have anything to make her stand out from the crowd, and I've got a year of experience on her."

"Sakura?" Ayame asked as she set a new bowl of ramen down in front of Naruto. "Isn't that the girl who asked you out the other day, Naruto?"

Naruto felt a brief urge to start running as he felt Tenten's gaze settle on him. "Um … yeah, that was her."

"Sakura asked you out?" Tenten inquired, her voice strangely neutral.

"Yeah." Naruto answered nervously.

"Interesting." Tenten commented.

"I turned her down." Well, technically he had told her that needed to figure out things with Tenten first, but since he and Tenten were a couple now he would tell Sakura he wouldn't be able to date her the next time he had a chance to do so.

"I gathered that you turned her down, since you're dating me now." Tenten stated.

"Um … is that going to be a problem?" Naruto asked nervously.

Tenten shot him a smile. "Of course not. She asked, you said no, end of story."

Despite Tenten's words, Naruto had a feeling that that his newly proclaimed girlfriend might enjoy getting to fight Sakura a bit more than she really should.


	19. Training Montage

Don't own Naruto

* * *

This had just not been a good week for Sakura Haruno.

The first stage of the Chunin Exam had gone well enough; the written exam had been tough, but doable. She had even gotten through the surprise trick question with no problems. Sure, Naruto's little ploy to get through his own part of the test had thrown her off a bit, but it all worked out in the end. Her team had been one of the few to actually get to the next stage of the exams, and with Sasuke on her team she was confident they would make it through the next stage of the test just as easily.

Then came the Forest of Death, where everything had gone horribly wrong. Next thing she knew, they had been attacked by an S-ranked criminal, Sasuke had abandoned his teammates to pursue some sort of family revenge thing, and her other teammate was in the hospital and injured so badly that even if she recovered, her ninja career was over. It was terrifying how quickly everything had fallen apart.

Then Naruto had shown up and things had taken an interesting turn, only to go wrong again a few days later when the boy politely informed her that he was not interested because he was in a relationship with another girl. A girl she was going to have to fight in the tournament next month. Moreover, given that this girl had an entire year of growth and experience over her, a girl who was also probably going to win this fight easily. Given that she had found out Sakura had asked her new boyfriend out and was no doubt less than pleased by that fact, it was probably going to be a painful experience as well.

So in a bit less than a month's time, she could look forward to a physical defeat to compliment the social one she'd already gotten from Tenten. Just to make things that much worse, everyone in Konoha and even dignitaries from other nations would be there to witness her public humiliation. Years from now, people would still remember her as that girl who got utterly crushed during the Chunin Exams.

Oh, and on top of all that Kakashi was late for her training session. Not that this was a huge surprise, but it was yet another entry on the very long list of things that were going badly in her life.

Just as if thinking of her eccentric sensei was enough to conjure the man out of the æther, Kakashi walked up. "Yo, Sakura. Sorry I'm late." To the pink-haired girl's annoyance, Kakashi barely even bothered to look up from his well-worn copy of Icha Icha Paradise when he greeted her. "I had an important meeting with the Hokage, so…"

"You said you had a meeting with the Hokage when you were late for our team meeting last week." Sakura glowered at her sensei suspiciously. "You can't use the same excuse twice and expect me to believe you."

"Oh, I used that one before?" Kakashi gave a careless shrug. "Well, that time I was lying, so it doesn't count. This time though, I really did have a meeting with the Hokage. Honest."

"Sure you did," Sakura crossed her arms over her chest and hit her sensei with a particularly nasty glare she had learned from watching her mother. "So, what did you and the Hokage talk about during this meeting you supposedly had with each other? Since it was just a few minutes ago, I'm sure you can remember."

"Oh, I'm afraid I can't tell you. Classified information and all that." Well, he probably could have told her some of the things that the Hokage brought up during the meeting without getting into any real trouble since not all of it had been top secret. However, what he could tell her would not have made much sense if she did not know any of the secret stuff, so she probably would have spent the rest of the day pestering him to fill in all the gaps.

For her part, Sakura took his vague answer as an admission of guilt. "I can't believe you. You could at least have a little bit of responsibility and tell the truth. What kind of adult are you?"

Kakashi briefly debated trying to defend himself, but that would probably just make the girl even more agitated than she was already, and it would really just be more trouble than it was worth. A lot simpler to let her think she had won and simply toss out another excuse. "Alright, fine, I actually got lost on the road of life."

"You used that excuse two weeks ago." Sakura shot back.

"Had to help an old lady cross the street?"

"Last month."

"A giant evil ninja raccoon from Kumo broke into my apartment last night and stole my headband, and I had to spend the entire morning chasing it down and getting my headband back."

Sakura just glared at him silently.

Kakashi let out a slightly frustrated sigh. "Darn, I was sure I hadn't used the raccoon one yet; that's one of my best stories. Maybe this would go faster if you just told me which excuses I've already used, so I know what to say?"

An annoyed growl and the sound of grinding teeth was the only answer Kakashi got until eventually the girl just snapped. "Forget it; it's obvious that you don't care and nothing I say is ever going to turn you into a responsible sensei who actually shows up on time, so why should I bother?"

"That's a very positive attitude, Sakura. I'm glad to hear you say that." The jonin idly hoped that this would mean that she would stop spending the first few minutes of every meeting being mad at him for showing up late. After all, he was only half an hour late; for him, that was practically showing up early. "You know, that reminds me; I need to go see a man about a dog, so we might have to cancel today's training session. Oh well, see you tomorrow." Kakashi turned around to leave

The jonin had barely taken two steps before Sakura shrieked like a pink haired banshee. "Get your ass back here, Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi sighed, and turned back around to face Sakura. "Fine, fine, I guess I can take care of that after we finish up today's training. You really should make up your mind though; first you say it's fine if I'm late and lazy, but now you're yelling at me again. I'm really getting some mixed signals here. You should try to follow my example, and always be clear and consistent."

"I'd rather die than end up like you," Sakura growled. She was about to go into full-scale rant mode until it occurred to her that every minute she spent yelling at Kakashi was a minute lost she could have spent training. "Never mind, let's just get started."

"Right, training for the tournament," Kakashi shot a disinterested glance at Sakura. "Who's your opponent again? I forgot."

"You forgot." Sakura stated flatly.

"Well, the meeting where the matches got decided was a long time ago."

"It was yesterday."

"Really? Huh. Well, to be fair a lot of things happened yesterday." Kakashi gave a careless shrug and very reluctantly closed his book. "Anyway, it's not like you have a very good chance of winning; Tenten's older than you, stronger, tougher, has a year of training and practical experience over you, and she's really good with weapons. In contrast, frankly you're really not that great of a ninja. I don't think you have a very good chance of winning. In fact, if I had to place a bet on the match I'd probably bet that you'll lose in less than a minute."

"Whose side are you on, anyway?" Sakura groused. The worst part was that deep down, Sakura had to admit that everything he said was true.

"Yeah, everyone knows you're no match for her. You know she's better than you are. I know she's better than you are. Gai knows she's better than you are. Her teammates know that she's better than you are." Sakura shrank a little lower with every person Kakashi mentioned. She could feel whatever faint hope she had of winning collapsing. "Most importantly, she knows that she's better than you are. That actually gives you a bit of an advantage, if you think about it." Sakura's bowed head shot up at that. "Since she knows that she's better than you, she won't take you seriously as an opponent. She'll try to save her energy for the rest of the matches and she'll hold back her best jutsu; everyone wants to have one two nasty surprises ready to pull out for a tough fight, and she'll want to save hers for the opponents she'll face after you. You're no match for her if she goes all out, but she won't want to go all out at first. That just might give a chance to sucker punch her and squeak out a win."

"You really think I can win?" Sakura asked, feeling a little bit hopeful about the match for the first time since she learned just whom she would be fighting.

"It's not the likeliest thing in the world, but I wouldn't say it's impossible. Like I said, even if you do lose, everyone knows she's better than you are. That includes the judges. Going up against an opponent who seriously outmatches you and putting up a good fight will still count for a lot with them. Remember, you don't even have to win a single match to get promoted."

"So she could beat me in the fight, and I'd still end up getting promoted." A smile slowly made its way onto Sakura's face. "And since everyone knows she's better than me, her winning the fight probably wouldn't impress anybody. No matter how badly she beats me, that won't get her promoted to Chunin, but all I have to do is put up a decent fight and I'll earn a lot of respect. Everybody loves an underdog, after all."

"Feeling better about the tournament now?"

Sakura stopped to think for a moment, and then nodded. "Yeah, I am."

"See, I'm a great sensei."

"Yeah, I guess you're alright." Sakura conceded. "Out of all the lazy perverted senseis that always show up late for everything that I've had, you're the best of them."

"I'm flattered," Kakashi deadpanned.

* * *

"It is a pity Naruto will not be training with us," Lee lamented as he dodged through the nearly constant stream of kunai, shuriken, and other throwing weapons Tenten hurled in his general direction. "Since my opponent in the first round will be a wind user, practicing against him would be excellent training."

"I suppose it would be useful, and I'm not exactly happy about who he found to run his training program," Tenten agreed. "Then again, if he was training with the two of us I wouldn't have any surprises to use against him when we fought." Tenten mixed a few exploding kunai into her next barrage and managed to get one close enough to leave Lee's right leg just a bit singed.

Lee held up his hand, and Tenten halted her attack. Lee took a moment to check his injury, and confirmed that it was not nearly bad enough to need immediate medical attention. The burn was barely worse than a bad sunburn, and a bit of pain would just make the rest of the day's training that much more challenging and intense. Lee signaled that he was ready to resume, and soon he was once more frantically dodging Tenten's attacks. "You seem quite interested in defeating Naruto. It is curious, considering…" The boy hesitated for a moment, trying to think of exactly how to bring up the fact that Naruto and Tenten were dating now without being crass about it. "Considering recent developments between the two of you."

"Just because he's my boyfriend now doesn't mean I'm going to start going easy on him." Tenten shot back, hurling the next kunai just a touch harder than was strictly necessary. "If he holds back on me when we have our match, I'll kick his ass. It's exactly the kind of thing that idiot would do, too."

"If you will forgive me for saying so Tenten, I do not believe either one of us is currently capable of defeating Naruto if he were to truly unleash his full strength against us." Something halfway between admiration and annoyance entered Lee's voice as he added. "His growth has truly been phenomenal."

"Yeah, it has." Tenten paused her attack, and glance at Lee speculatively. "Does it bother you that he's so much stronger than us now?"

"At times." Lee confessed. "As much as I admire his growth, and the training he has put himself through to achieve his current level of skill, I am bothered by the fact that no matter how hard I work, he still outpaces me. Gai-sensei always tells me that hard work can overcome any level of natural talent, but Naruto works just as hard as we do, and his natural talents are quite impressive as well."

"Not to mention the whole jinchuriki thing he has going for him." Tenten added. "It's hard to believe that a year and a half ago I was explaining some of the most basic ninja skills to him, and now he's gone and left us both in the dust. Pretty soon he'll probably be the one teaching me things instead. Or he'll be doing something stupid like trying to protect me when we're in the middle of a fight."

"Would that not be natural?" Lee asked. "We are comrades. If you were at a disadvantage, any one of us would assist you, just as you would protect us if we needed your help."

"Well, yeah, but it's different for me, especially with him." Tenten frowned, idly twirling a kunai as she tried to find a way to put words to her thoughts. "If it's you protecting me, well, we're both equal in skill, and Gai-sensei's our sensei, so that's normal, but Naruto... The thing with him is, he's stronger than me, and he knows it. So, he might do something like think that he has to protect me all the time."

"And you dislike that idea?" Lee looked slightly confused. "If he began displaying such concern for your wellbeing, would that indicate that he cares very deeply about you?"

"Well, um, yeah, I guess." Tenten flushed slightly, before recovering from her brief flash of embarrassment and returning to the matter at hand. "But it's not about that, it's about the fact that I don't need him to protect me in the first place. I'm a kunoichi, a trained warrior. I don't need him to protect me; I can protect myself just fine. I'm not going to end up like one of those girls from the Academy who constantly dreams about being rescued by their boyfriend."

"You are concerned that your new relationship with Naruto will somehow compromise your ability to be a functional and independent ninja?"

"There's no reason why it should." Tenten frowned down at her kunai, idly testing the sharpness of its blade. "It's not like being involved with him is suddenly going to make me forget my ninja skills and training. Plenty of kunoichi have boyfriends and even end up getting married and having kids. They're still very good at what they do."

On the other hand, a lot of kunoichi wound up retiring from active duty once they had children too, and most of the women who stayed on active duty were not married to active shinobi. Konoha's society generally frowned on having both of a child's parents serving as active ninjas. A ninja's life inevitably meant spending considerable stretches of time far away from Konoha, and a child with two ninja parents would inevitably have to be placed in someone else's care whenever duty called. The larger ninja clans had an easier time dealing with that kind of thing thanks to having larger family support networks, but even in the clans having both of a child's parents as active ninjas was rare. Aunts, uncles, and grandparents could take care of a child, but abandoning a child into a relative's care was hardly an ideal solution. Then, of course, there was always the possibility of death in the line of duty for active ninjas. Losing one parent would be bad enough; nobody liked the idea of having a child turned into an orphan because a single mission went horribly wrong.

Tenten let out an annoyed growl and commented to herself, "I'm doing it again.'

"Doing what?" Lee asked.

"Worrying about what ifs and things that might happen years from now," Tenten answered. "I've got enough to deal with in the present; I don't need to add all the problems I might have to deal with ten or twenty years from now to the list too. If I'm worried about Naruto outpacing me, then I'll just have to work twice as hard as he does so I can keep up with him. No, I'll work three times as hard as he does so that I'll end up being better than him again!"

"Ah, Tenten, the fires of your youthfulness are so inspiring!" Lee declared exuberantly. "You're right; instead of worrying that Naruto is surpassing us, his example should inspire us to push ourselves to new heights! I shall also train three times harder! Truly, your words are as inspiring as Gai-sensei's!"

"Thanks Lee." It took Tenten another moment to process just what Lee had said. "Wait – What?"

"I said that your words were just like the inspiring speeches Gai-sensei gives to us!" Lee declared, his enthusiasm blinding him the horrified look on Tenten's face.

"I knew it," the girl groaned. "Sensei's insanity really is contagious, and now I'm catching The Gai."

* * *

Maeko charged in, but her first attack failed when her opponent flicked a lazy punch at her face that clipped her along the jaw. Maeko fell back a step before coming back in with a sweeping roundhouse kick that her opponent easily blocked before catching and trapping her leg with a deft twist of his arm.

Taijutsu was not an option anymore; she certainly could not try any more kicks with one leg trapped, and in her current pose even if she managed to twist around enough to land a punch there would not be any force behind it. That left her with only one other way to win the fight. Her hands shot through a few quick symbols and she hit her opponent with a genjutsu that should have convinced him that her captured leg had turned into a gigantic snake. Judging by the fact that her opponent did not let her go, it did not work.

Her opponent said nothing, apparently content to wait until she conceded that she had lost the match once more. That had been the pattern for every single training session they had gone through so far; she would do everything she could to win, and he would casually counter everything and beat her without even trying hard. Then he would oh-so-patiently explain what she had done wrong, and how she could improve on her skills.

That was not good enough. Not nearly good enough. Obviously, she could not expect to win against her sparring partner every time, but she was sick of losing every single time, of never managing to even make him work hard for his victory. Her frustration boiled over, and before she realized what she was doing, each of her hands started blurring through a series of independent signs.

Moments later her leg was free again after she her first jutsu used her captured leg as a channel to deliver a nasty electric shock, and when the man stumbled back a half step in surprise his foot landed in a slick mud patch Maeko had created with a simple water jutsu. The man's leg slid out from under him, and he fell flat on his back. A second later, a thrown kunai buried itself into the mud a few inches away from his head.

With a confident smirk, Maeko haughtily announced, "Looks like I win this round, Iruka-sensei."

Her old Academy instructor picked himself up from ground and let out a sheepish chuckle, swiping a hand through the back of his hair to knock a few bits of mud and dirt free. "I'll admit, you surprised me that time. You don't use much ninjutsu, and I don't think you've ever used your kekkei genkai in a spar in all the time you were at the Academy so I wasn't expecting it. Don't expect me to fall for the same trick twice though."

Maeko had gone completely stiff as soon as he mentioned her kekkei genkai. A few seconds too late, the chunin realized that would probably have been better to let the fact that she had used her bloodline abilities pass unremarked instead of drawing attention to it. In any case, it was too late to take it back now. "Look Maeko, if you ever want to talk to somebody about what –"

"Drop it Iruka," The girl in question snarled. "I'm not going to be your next little pity project. You think I'm stupid enough really believe that you just coincidently happened to be training in the same area I was, and offering to work with me was just a matter of convenience? I've seen how you worked at the Academy; find some kid with a sad past who's having trouble keeping up, and try to be that kid's friend and help him. I'm surprised it took you this long to get around poor little dead-last orphan Maeko. I bet once you saw me training by myself you just couldn't help yourself, could you? So sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not interested in becoming one of your pet projects."

For his part, Iruka stood patiently and endured Maeko's annoyed rant. Once the girl seemed to finish her venting, the chunin sighed and very calmly answered, "It's not a matter of pity, Maeko. I'm a teacher. It's what I do, and even though you graduated from the Academy a long time ago, a part of me will always think of you as one of my students. Whenever I see one of my students having trouble, it's only natural for me to want to help."

"Well, I don't need your help!" Maeko snapped at her former instructor. "Just like I didn't need my jonin-sensei's help, or my teammates' help, or anybody else! I can manage just fine on my own!"

"No Maeko, you can't," Iruka responded placidly. "Training by yourself is never a good way to improve you skills; an outsider's perspective is incredibly important. Even outside of training, ninjas work in teams for a reason. That was one of the first lessons I tried to teach you at the Academy; nobody can do everything by themselves. A ninja has to have teammates they can trust and rely on in order to reach their full potential."

"Well, I've been managing just fine by myself, so I guess all that teamwork stuff is a bunch of bullshit," Maeko shot back. "I don't need teammates, or senseis, or anybody else! The only person in this entire craphole village I need is me! Myself! Nobody else! So the rest of you can just leave me the fuck alone, because that's how I like it!"

Iruka decided to make one last effort to reach out to the girl. "Maeko, have you ever tried talking to anybody about what happened with your moth–"

"Shut the fuck up right now, or I'll kill you!" the girl snarled with a hint of bestial madness in her voice. "I'm not kidding. Don't talk about that; don't even think about it. Ever. It's none of your damn business."

Iruka let out a resigned sigh. He made a genuine effort, but there was nothing he could do for Maeko. At the end of the day, it was almost impossible to help somebody who did not want help. Despite that, he offered the girl one final opening. "If you ever change your mind, you know where to find me."

"I won't. Now get out of here. I don't want to see you again anytime soon." The girl turned her back on her former sensei and growled to herself, "I can train just fine by myself."

Iruka reluctantly turned around and walked away, giving her exactly what she wanted. Even if he had a chance of getting through to her one day, she was far too angry to listen to him now.

Iruka almost jumped in shock when he heard the first crashing sound coming from the training ground where he had left Maeko. He turned around, and moment later he saw a flash of light followed moments later by a tree falling to the ground. The process repeated itself several more times, and for a moment he was tempted to go back. That would probably be a bad idea though; all things considered, it was much healthier for everyone involved if Maeko took out her rage on a few trees.

* * *

Naruto had finally managed to focus himself perfectly. It had taken most of his month of training to pull it off, but now all of his hard work was finally paying off, and he had reached the mental state he needed to control the Fox's chakra perfectly.

Then someone smacked him over the head and broke his concentration.

"What the heck was that for?" Naruto shouted, rubbing the now slightly sore part of his skull and leaping to his feet in the middle of the grassy clearing that was serving as their training area. "I was finally starting to get all that perfect concentration stuff you were telling me about, and then you go and hit me like that!"

"Wrong, Naruto," Yugito announced briskly. "You were over-concentrating, that's why I was able to walk up behind you and smack you. I wasn't even trying to be sneaky, but you were so focused, you didn't notice me. You can't overdo things like that; perfect focus is useless if you can only pull it off when you end up being perfectly blind and deaf as well. Controlling your tailed beast with no distractions is easy, probably because it's a completely worthless skill. You wanted me to teach you how to control your tailed beast in combat, which means learning to be mindful of your surroundings."

"Well you didn't have to hit me so hard…" Naruto grumbled.

"I've been giving you gentle little taps since this is just a temporary little bit of instruction," Yugito answered heartlessly. "If you were a proper apprentice, you'd be losing blood every time you messed up. In my experience, pain is an excellent motivator."

"That's not a very nice way to train people," Naruto complained.

"I'd rather be effective than nice, and a few cuts and bruises now will save you from getting killed or worse in the future."

"Yeah, well Konoha manages to train plenty of good ninjas without having to be mean about it."

"Well, in that care you're welcome to get one of the Konoha jinchuriki who knows all about managing perfect control over their tailed beasts to train you." Yugito paused a moment, and then adopted a faux-thoughtful expression. "Oh wait, I just remembered, none of Konoha's jinchuriki ever managed that. Guess that means you'll just have to do things the Kumo way then."

"Well, we've only had like, two jinchuriki for the Fox before me, while most of the other villages go through jinchuriki a lot faster. Sure, you might know more about dealing with tailed beasts, but that's only because you've had a couple dozen jinchuriki go nuts from being pushed way too hard. Konoha never had a jinchuriki go bad like other villages; we had one die of old age, and the other just died in some kinda freak accident or something. Neither one ever went crazy. Can't say that for any other village. Heck, look at Gaara."

"Yes, his state is regrettable, but mastering new techniques requires the willingness to make sacrifices. That's why Konoha has never produced a jinchuriki with perfect control over their beasts; you aren't willing to pay the price that kind of innovation takes. You're fine with letting Kumo pay the price, and then just taking the benefits of our work and sacrifice."

"Hey, it's not like you're training me for free; you got a whole bunch of useful intel on those Akatsuki guys in exchange for giving me a few weeks of training." Naruto crossed his arms over his chest, and added, "Besides, Kumo's really not in any position to complain about other people trying to steal their unique jutsu."

Yugito shrugged, conceding the point. " That's the way of the ninja world, I suppose. When somebody else has something that you want, it's inevitable that you'll try to take it. The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must."

"That doesn't sound like a very nice world to live in," Naruto commented.

Yugito gave a careless shrug. "Doesn't really matter if we think of it as a nice world to live in or not; that's the way it is."

"The way I see it, if the world really is that way the main reason is that there are a lot of folks like you who think that's the way things have to be."

Yugito thought it over for a moment, and shrugged again. "It's possible you're right, but unless you can convince every single ninja in the world to change their minds, it doesn't really matter. As long as the ninja world is a ruthless place, we will have to train ninjas to be ruthless if they want to survive. Gaara's certainly not going to stop trying to kill you during your match with him just because you start telling him about love, peace, and the magic of friendship."

"Probably not," Naruto admitted with a reluctant frown on his face. "Hey, how is it he's so much better at the whole jinchuriki thing than I am anyway? I mean from what I've seen of the guy, he's not exactly full of inner peace and tranquility, but you've said he's got a lot of control over his jinchuriki abilities."

A flicker of distaste played over Yugito's face. "There are two ways to tap into the power of a tailed beast. One of them is the way I was trained, and consequently the way I'm training you, where you achieve mastery of your tailed beast through discipline and self-control. The other way is to cast discipline aside, and let the beast take complete control over your mind and body. All you have to do is focus on rage and hate, and the beast will do the rest; it's a much easier and faster way of doing things, if you don't mind winding up like Gaara."

"So, not a good way to do things then?"

"As a general rule, I wouldn't advise it," Yugito agreed. "Drawing on your tailed beast's power makes it easier for the beast to influence you; that's why you can really only use a small amount of the Fox's chakra safely. Someone like Gaara who is willing to give up his self-control completely can draw an almost all of his beast's power."

"So even though the Fox has a lot more raw power than the Tanuki, Gaara's actually got a lot more chakra since he can use everything his beast has."

"Essentially," Yugito agreed. "If he goes all out against you, you'll have to push past your safe limits to beat him. That's why willpower and focus are so important for you; you might have to push up to the edge of how much of the Fox's chakra you can use while staying in control of your actions. The closer you get to the edge, the easier it is to go over, and let the Fox take control."

"I'm not worried about that," Naruto announced confidently. "I've been using the Fox's power for a while now; I've got a long way to go before I have it all figured out, but I know what I can do, and what's too far for me."

"Well, once we finish talking, I'll expect you to show me just how much you can do. It's been a while since that little sparring match we had, hasn't it?"

Naruto gave her a grin that showed entirely too many teeth. "I wouldn't mind that; I owe you an ass-kicking, and my skills have gone way up since the last time we fought."

"Perhaps. Or maybe it's only your ego that's grown," Yugito shot back with a smirk. "In any case, so far we've been a bit too focused on Gaara. Understandable, but we shouldn't forget you have two other matches before you might end up facing him. I would hate to see you lose in the first round because your training was completely focused on the final round. After all, if you lose pathetically, that would make me look bad. You'll be facing ninjas from your own village, so you'd likely know more about them than I would. "

"Well, second round I'll be up against Tenten; Sakura's no match for her, and I think Tenten's kinda pissed at her too."

"Worried about fighting your girlfriend?" Yugito sniped at him, a knowing smirk on her face.

"Nah, we spar all the time, so it's not a big deal. This time, we're just sparring with an audience. First round's got me more curious though."

"What, the Kimura girl? Are you sure you can beat her?"

"If you'd asked me that question a while ago, I'd have said, I can beat her, no problem. She's not that good, really. But then I found out she's got a kekkei genkai she hasn't been using, and that kinda changes things."

"A Bloodline Limit? Interesting. What type?"

"A combination element, ranton."

Yugito frowned at that. "I didn't think Konoha had any ranton users." A moment later, a smirk ran across her face. "Looks like somebody's been spreading their genes around in places they shouldn't, then. Well, it must be Kiri's fault; her skin's the wrong color to have picked it up from one of the ninjas from my village who has that particular bloodline limit. Kiri certainly had plenty of rogue bloodline users running around. Or I guess it could just be a spontaneous case." Yugito shrugged. "Wherever it's from, I've seen ranton jutsu in action, so I can tell you what to expect from her."

"Thanks." Naruto frowned over at his temporary sensei. "You know kitty, when you're not trying to beat me up, kidnap me, or mess with my head and lie to me for the heck of it, you're not half bad."

"Glad to hear it," Yugito smirked at him. "That means my new plan of subverting your loyalty to Konoha by acting friendly and helpful is working."

"Are you trying to be nice to me because you want to be friends, or is this all some manipulative game you're playing?" Naruto crossed his arms over his chest and glowered at the Kumo woman.

Yugito's answer was a peal of merry laughter. "Ah, Naruto, you really are so refreshingly naïve sometimes." Yugito let out another chuckle and with a wide grin on her face declared, "The simple truth is, even if you were my best friend in the world I'd still be trying to manipulate you."

* * *

Author's Note: Cutting Loose actually has a page of its own on TV Tropes. Personally, I think that's pretty cool.

Also, props to TenchiSolutionsForAll for proofreading this chapter for me.


End file.
